ReDigitise: Of Dimention Jumping and Digimon
by Shadowfaller
Summary: Set during Adventure02, Tamers and Data Savers. With the Emperor in the Digital World, and Digimon appearing in Tokyo, the Digidestine have to work to fight on both fronts, but new enemies and threats appear, some old, some alien, some not even from either worlds. But the Digisestine aren't alone in the fight as Lady Opthanimon has reached out to a specialist.
1. Enter Black Star

**Prologue: Enter the Black Star**

Digimon; Digital Monsters, natives of the digital plain. Are they just rouge programs that are beyond the control of humans? Or are they something more then data? Can data really be alive or just doomed to mimic life? To some, their existence is seen as a threat to humanity. To many, they are little more then a game. To to few, they know the truth, and with it, shoulder a burden… the digi-destine, children who work with digimon to defend the digital plain and the earth it's existence was born from.

Before the time of the Sovereign, the crests and the eight children who carried them, there were the Celestial Digimon who watched over the ten regions of the Digital World, and held the ten sprits of the legendary warriors. Ophanimon, Seraphimon and Cherubimon. For many years, the Digital World prospered under their rule until Lucemon corrupted Cherubimon, and strikes down Seraphimon, and captured Ophanimon. In her deperation, Ophanitmon reached out to the children of our counter world, Earth. Five children were chosen by the Sprits of Flame, Light, Ice, Wind and Thunder, and one given the corrupted spirt of Darkness to be freed and purified. Together, the six children with their sprit partners fought against the servants of Lucemon. When the digital world and it's three moons were reduced to nothing, even one of the children, the bearer of true darkness sacrificed himself to protect the remaining five, and surrendered the sprits to his brother.

All seemed lost, but in darkest of times, hope shines at his brightest.

The children merged into Susanoomon to destroy Lucemon in his Shadow Lord Mode before he made it to Earth and released the data he hoarded to rebuild the digital world, and the children returned home, leaving the digital world. We thought they would never return. Until Shamanmon had a vision, of a red sea of chaos, humans and digimon charging against each other with children, legendary warriors and digimon standing between them. He recognised Ophanimon standing beside the warrior of flame, and a young girl, the chosen child of light. Upon hearing Shamanmon's vision, Ophanimon knew what the vision meant. But at the time, the remaining six demon lords were retaliating against Lucemon's distraction.

A young human boy arrived in the digital world, but not from the same human world as the children. Another universe that's parallel to the human's. One without a digital world and where the technology is more advanced and dangerous then the arcane. Where magic and science exists side by side. The Black Star, both a young boy and an old man, with a zeal of youth and experience of ages. A scholar, a fighter, a saint, a sinner. A chosen child without a partner.

The Trailmon took him from his deep cover operations in the city of New York. He and his partner, Miranda Jane, was looking for a weapon that came from another world, made by creatures who kills, destroys and butchers anything that isn't them…

Blake Steorra, an Australian born half human teenager of the Terran Commonwealth quickly read and reread the message on his subspace enabled phone.

"I have a mission for you my Champion. You will find a train waiting on the Courtlandt station platform. It will take you to the residence of your contact. I trust you know the responsibilities of your position child. She requires someone of a particular physical age and certain skill set." The message read. It didn't mention who the contact was or what she wanted. He didn't expect it either, but he'd know when he'd meet her. He already had a feeling that the contact was a woman.

Blake looked around the train again. he had seen a number of different designs during his lifetime. But this train car was possibly the most radical. Benches were bolted against the wall, windows were round and the doors bared writing that Blake didn't recognise. He was more concerned about the structure of the data everything seemed to be made of, like someone constructed a world where data is energy and matter, and placed it in it's own pocket dimension.

He noticed the train rolling into a terminal. Somewhere bright and colourful by the looks of it.

"End of the line kid." He heard the train say. Train? "Better not keep the Lady Ophanimon waiting. She might be a sweet gold gal, but best not to keep her waiting."

"Uh. Right." Blake said, getting up, taking his bag and walking off the train. The platform looked more like a field of white flowers, a castle standing against a perpetual sunset, with whites, greens and purples. It looked like a fairy tale. The castle was still a fair walk away. His first instinct was to look though the contents of his bag to look for his hover board, the trusty jet sled that proved a stalwart companion over the years but something told him he had time. He always had time.

Time would always be on his side.

"Good luck kid." Was all the train said before departing.

"Thanks. I think." Blake muttered, straitening up the collar of his duster, checking the inside pockets for weapons, electronics, crystals and wallet, even straitened up the seven pointed star badge on the lapel and the ankh necklace, both symbols of his position as a champion and as an agent. He began walking, contemplating the scene around him… the quite, the bueaty… the screaming yellow rabbit wearing red pants bering chased by a white panda wearing a pink haramaki with a green book in hand… hold up.

"I told you not to touch it you nincompoop!" The white one yelled.

"You asked me to bring it to you." The rabbit protested hiding behind Blake.

"That was three days ago!" Both went started running around Blake in an attempt to keep away from the attacker, or to attack. "You knew this was an important project for me!"

"I didn't mean to pull out the page. I just wanted something to draw on."

"Why does Lady Ophanimon torture me with you!?"

"Excuse me." Blake caught their attention. They were surprised to find a human standing in the middle of the Sunlight Field. "If you're not too busy using me as a maypole, could you help me with something."

"Bokomon. Why is a human here?" The rabbit asked his attacker.

"I don't believe it. It can't be today. I've only just finished the book of their last adventure. But…" The white one muttered then turned more cheerful. "Sorry. I'm Bokomon keeper of Ophanimon's Library of Knowledge. And this is Neemon." He introduced himself and the rabbit. "I'm guessing your our escort."

"Escort?" Blake asked.

"Apologies. I thought you were already informed of your duties." Bokomon mentioned. "Perhaps Lady Ophanimon would explain it better. Follow us please."

"Are we going to see the humans again Bokomon?" Neemon asked.

"Yes Neemon. I might get a chance to write an afterward. I wonder what they're up to now."

* * *

Yutaka Himi couldn't understand what was happening. The sixteen year old watched his younger sibling from behind a nearby tree. Tommy had grown a lot more independent overnight, and over the past year, he had shown it. Not to mention that he started hanging out with kids older then him, and they weren't even from his school. The one he was with now, Takuya, was from Jiyugaoka, and was responsible for getting Tommy interested in soccer. He followed them from the station in West Shinjuku where Tommy was waiting. Last week he would meet Takuya at his home field, but this time, he was riding the train with Takuya to the other team's home field.

There were four others, J.P. got him interested in boxing and magic tricks, Zoe passed along some Italian, Koji introduced him to music, and Koichi gave him his old baseball kit. But out of all five of them, Takuya seemed to have a greater influence over the orange hat wearing preteen boy.

Their parents might not see something wrong, but something about those teenagers were very wrong.

"What are those guys getting you into?" Yutaka asked Tommy, knowing the question was unheard given that he was on the other side of the train car.

"Stalking us again Yutaka?" Came a frustrated female voice. Yutaka froze, not expecting the blonde haired, half Italian Zoe Orimoto to be behind him, another of the teenagers who Tommy hung out with. Behind her was J.P, a formally heavyset brown haired boy who had began to shoot up in height and had the sense to stand well back from the soon to begin verbal fight.

"Great. You two. I knew Takuya would be on board. Where's the Yin Yang duo." Yutaka spat. J.P chuckled, no one could tell the two apart if Koji lost his bandana and tail, grow Koichi's hair out, you couldn't tell the twins apart. Yutaka couldn't from the distance, he had been keeping.

"Ticket please sir." Came a deep voice. Yutaka froze. In trying to get on the train to follow his brother, he didn't by a ticket. "You do know it's against the law to board a train without a valid ticked Himi." Wait.

"Just what are you playing at Koichi?" Yutaka turned to see the bandana wearing twin instead.

"Close." J.P. smiled. "I'd would be insulted if it was anyone else."

"Because he is good looking and a sharp dresser." Zoe cooed.

"I'll tell him you two said hi." Koji said. "Aren't you two heading to Odabia?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Takuya and Tommy just disem… Hey!" A young foreign woman with brown hair, wearing a blue and yellow hoodie and a pair of brown jeans ran into him. She began yelling loudly at Yukata in english.

"I'm sorry ma'am. Can you slow down? Or speak Japanese please?" Yukata asked. She just kept yelling and shoved Yutaka into the crowd before running off.

"That was off." JP noted as he and Zoe stepped off the train just as the doors closed. Yukata managed get out of the pile he was pushed into, only to fail to get to the doors in time to stop them.

"You could have stop them from closing!" Yutaka yelled at Koji, the only one of the five teenagers aboard.

"What's the big deal?" Koji asked. "Just double back, unless your following Tommy again." He didn't have time to think about it further when his stop came up, Tamachi station.

He disembarked the train and walked towards the apartment building his mom and brother inhabited. It was always been him going to see his mom. But Koji was a little hesitant to tell his dad that he found his brother, and Koichi didn't want to meet his father. Not until he could forgive him for leaving them. And Tomoko Kimura has twelve years to catch up on.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Kimura Residance, Koichi had his laptop open to an IM conversation, between himself and a friend that recently moved to Odabia. It was only across the Rainbow Bridge, sure, but Odabia had it's own school district, meaning he wouldn't be seeing much of his friend. It was about a year ago he became the warrior of darkness, taking on Duskmon's form, then purifying the sprits into Lowermon. After he got out of the hospital a few weeks later, introduced Koji to his mom, and started going back to school, he became aware of T.K's hatred for all things relating to darkness.

He decided before then to keep his time in the digital world to himself, his brother, and his friends, but guilt swelled on Koichi's shoulders more. He didn't know why he hated darkness so much.

"So, how did the big move go?" Koichi typed and hit enter.

"Not bad. New school. New apartment. But the same old lumpy oatmeal." T.K sent back. "I met two of my school mates already. Yolei who organises the school's computer club, and Cody who's a student in Kendo." He added.

"Reminds me of my brother." Koichi typed and sent without thinking.

"I thought you were an only child?" T.K sent back. Koichi panicked for a moment, trying to think of how to explain it, when another IM appeared on the screen. "Explain to me later. Matt just came off stage. I'll talk to you later."

Koichi heard a knock at the door, and his mother answer. "Koji."

"Hey mom."

Koichi typed a reply. "And speaking of the estranged sibling, he arrives. Talk to you later." The door to the living room slid back, reviling the warrior of light. Koichi closed the laptop and set it aside. "So?"

"Movie and Pizza?" Koji asked. "My treat."

"She said she needed to go into work. Figured I'll call dad, stay tonight and get Takuya to cover if they ask."

"And school?"

Koji shrugged. "I'll get there on time."

"Fine. But you'll help me make breakfast in bed for mom."

"Just along as your up early. You know how bad a cook I am." Koji half joked. He was serious about about the fact he couldn't cook, mostly because he hasn't gained anymore experience cooking despite Zoe giving him a few pointers. He is sure of one thing, Takuya is still just as bad as him. Worse maybe.

"Actuarially." Koichi said suddenly. "There is something." He produced a printout of a photo that Koji found eye opening. At first, he thought it was two blurs, but became obvious that it was two creatures fighting each other on a a highway, one atop the other. "I looked them up. One's Lynxmon. The other's Renamon. Someone named the Digimon Queen been posting these photos to a blog."

Koji couldn't believe it. A year after they went to the digital world and all of a sudden, there's digimon in the real world. While they didn't have their sprit partners, they couldn't let this go un-investigated.

* * *

The inside of the castle was just as imposing as the outside. For one thing, he appreciated Bokomon's ability as a librarian. The entrance hall was a massive library, seemingly ordered in such a matriculates manner. The two rookie digimon lead him upstairs and into what looked like a throne room. Standing where the throne should be was a woman, dressed in green armour, set of gold wings stood from her back and holding a shield in her hand. A matching spear lied

"Apologies Champion, but time is sparse and at this moment, Laylamon is on her way. Seraphimon and Cherubimon were attacked by Daemon and Beelzemon, and they destroyed each other in the battles. My servants have sealed away the first three attackers when they began attacking several villages."

"And now Laylamon is coming after you." Blake concluded.

"No. She wants to prevent the release of the Harmonious ones. It is already too late. The warriors have burnt away their physical forms and Neferitimon is already on her way to their resting place. All Laylamon will find is her demise."

"Along with yours."

"Do not concern yourself with my wellbeing child. I will be reconfigured upon death and find my way back to you." She handed Blake a black and gold device. "Take this Digi-vice. Unlike the others, any partnered digimon will be connected if their partner human is unwilling, or unable to fulfil their duties as digi-destine. I must ask you now, do you understand the reason why I chose you for this position?"

Blake nodded knowing what comes next.

"In the box behind me, you will find the remaining six sprits of the Legendary Warriors. This is my request. Take them to their human partners along with Bokomon and Neemon. But warn them if they take on the sprits, they will become one with them, with no way to undo the process."

"What do you mean become one?"

"I mean, merge completely, bind their fractal codes to their DNA, becoming in essence, half digimon. If they accept they accept the responsibility again, along with the burden. If they cannot…"

There was a loud bang, followed by a series of loud, echoing footsteps. "Little sister."

"Go. Now." She whispered before taking her spear and walking into the main chamber. Blake walked up to the box, picked it up and gently put it inside his bag.

"There's a secret passage though that book shelf." Bokomon informed him, leading him and Neemon to the back of the room. "I'm not sure where or when it leads."

"Where or when?"

"We call it a time tunnel." He pointed out. "All I know is that the tunnel leads three hundred years into the future of the digital world and it was caused by our world and their world syncing up sometime in the future." Bokomon explained. "A few of them have been piping up over Sunlight Fields. Some rookie digimon fell in, and a few of our friends went after them. Even Swanmon went after them. Ophanimon had to assign a new caretaker for Primary village."

They walked up to a a shimmering ball of purple light. Blake immediately became concerned.

"That shouldn't be here." Blake said afraid. "Not in this time or place."

* * *

"Run for your lives! It's the evil digimon emperor!"

The moment they heard, the digimon ran far as they could, as fast as they could. No one knew where he came from, why he enslaves digimon, or where he got his black digi-vice from, all they knew it, they had to get away from those black rings.

Ahead of them, A Gatomon with a whistle around her neck ran though the forest, all the long knowing she was singled out by a black ring. She couldn't out run it, so she focused her power, using her tail ring, she whacked the ring out of the sky. It fell out of the air and landed on the ground. Harmless.

"That was close." Gatomon mentioned, unknown to her was a Unimon was behind her, until she heard a noise. She turned just in time to see him power a horn blaster attack. She didn't have time to get out of the way. The sphere of white energy blasted her into a tree. Taking advantage of her dazed state, the Unimon galloped up and prepared to stop her.

Her eyes opened, seeing the impending attack, the cat digimon rolled out of the way with only a moment to spare, the Unimon only managing to step on the cat's tail ring. Gatoman ran, avoiding another horn blaster attack.

Deeper in, an orange dinosaur was knocked forward by a stray attack.

"Agumon!" Called another reptile wearing a blue pelt making him look like a wolf. He tumbled to a stop next to his friend. "We need to warn the others." He huffed tired.

"Tai! Help! Tai!"

Further in the clearing, the reptile's cry's for help were being answered…

* * *

"But it's true. You gotta believe me. Guys, I'm not kidding. Digimon are real." Takato tried to convince his friends, Kenta and Kazu. Kenta Kiagawa is a shy, glasses wearing boy who was hopeless at the digimon card game, resulting in Takato or Kazu winning . Kazu Shinoda, the class clown with the winning streak among them. The trio sat inside the ceramic dinosaur in Shinjuku park as the brunette went on about his dream last night until Kazu covered his friend's mouth.

"And then your eyes opened, and you were back in bed like nothing had ever happened." Kazu finished for his friend, now annoyed at the story. It was like Katsuharu and Teppei all over again.

"You saw them fighting on the bed?" Kenta asked obvious to the statement.

Takato struggled with Kazu's hand, trying to get it off with a muffled "No!" He managed to get it off. "Listen. This was not a dream! I'm not making it up!" He then muttered how his hands were numb from the rain. Kazu started laughing.

"Hey. Maybe you made your own cold puddle." Kazu suggested.

"What!?"

"That's some dream" Kenta added, joining in the chuckling.

"More like a bed wetting nightmare!" Kazu contuined, Both boys where laughing hard and Takato's face had reddened significantly before growing frustrated.

"I did not wet the bed!" Takato yelled over the chime of the clock.

"Maybe he froze his hands wiping his baby tears!" Kenta taunted.

"Hey!"

"Poor mr. sleepy head. Made his own water bed!" Kazu yelled climbing out of the dinosaur and running across the park

"Can't stay dry when your sleepy baby cries!" Kenta yelled following Kazu.

"I didn't wet anything!" Takato yelled after them. He leaned back against the dinosaur wall, leaving what they yelled back unheard. "It was real. I saw them. And her…" He thought back to his dream when that girl and Renamon fought Lynxmon. "What a tamer." A thought crossed his mind. He reached out to box he kept his digimon card in, along with a digi-vice, A hand held, phone shaped device with an inferred scanner, a card reader and an short antenna, with a crimson body and a set of summer yellow grips. He picked the device out, noticing that her didi-vice was different from his.

He did notice something else. The egg had hatched.

"Aw. I missed it." He moaned. "Good thing I don't have real pets. I can't even keep track of a digital one. But where could he be. I've got to find him…"

He heard a buzzing noise coming from his bag. He picked out a smartphone, with a fresh message on the touch screen reading "Come to the digital world. The digimon need our help. Are you ready to begin?"

Without thinking, Takato pushed yes.

"Takato Matsuki." A voice called out. "It is time to decide your future Takato."

The ten year old was immediately confused. "What? My future?" He shook his head. "It is just a game. Isn't it."

"You may think of it as a game if you'd wish, but understand the impactions of what action, and inaction can do. As long as you understand that, then all that maters is that you have fun."

"Okay. How do I play?"

"Go to the abandoned shied on the east side of Shinjuku park. Come alone and bring a deck of cards. Be prepared to give up the cards Digi-metals of Courage, Knowledge and Love."

Takato shrugged, knowing he had duplicates of those cards as Kenta gave them to him trying to find the golden digi-metal. With little more left, Takato packed his cards up, slipped them in his bag and pulled out a pair of googles he couldn't risk his mom throwing out. He clipped the digi-vice to his backpack strap, and put the googles over his head, ready for action.

He climbed out of the dinosaur and ran off toward the abandoned shied.

* * *

Not far from the park, sitting under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, a large computer complex. Two operators sat in chairs, held up by a pair of hydraulic arms, watched the output of the computer's task to monitor the world's communications network, a task made harder now thanks to the wide spread introduction of personal computing and mobile smart devices.

"I'm picking up an abnormal germination energy patten." One of the operators, a red haired young woman annouched.

"Is it another wild one?" Asked a man at a terminal below, flicking a zippo lighter open and close.

"I can't tell yet. But the levels are increasing at an experiential rate. I've never seen anything like it." The operator returned, fingers dancing over squares of random colours.

"Send a tracer."

"I'm trying, but the tracer is having trouble locking."

* * *

"Pretty lights." Neemon exclaimed.

"Yes. I suppose it is pretty." Blake agreed with the dim rabbit. "Just remember the golden rule of space travel. The more beautiful it is, the more likely it's going to kill you."

"How should we proceed?" Bokomon asked picking up a number of books and the case. There was a loud explosion that shock the entire building.

"Either stay here and face an almost curtain demise, or take hour chance though a barely stable rift in reality." Blake answered. "I'm going to with option B. Though, word of warning. I have no idea where we're going to end up."

"If we are to find Takuya and the hosts of the Legendary Warriors, then we have to take the risk. Have faith the Lady Ophanimon will find us on the other side." Bokomon stated. "And faith that destiny will lead us to them in the celestial digimon's absence."

Blake took the case from Bokomon and stared into the sphere of purple light. Neemon reached out to touch it only to vanish in a flash of light.

"I guess he's ready to go." Blake said as he jumped into sphere yelling "Bonzi!" Bokomon followed with caution. He disappeared in a flash of purple light then the sphere pulsed and collapsed on itself, leaving the three time travellers with no way back.

* * *

In a dim computer room, a figure wearing a white hooded robe stepped out of thin air and into the room. She looked around the classroom, remembering when she was first here, and knowing what she needed to do next. Third computer from the right, she produced a device and aimed the screen at the computer's wide screen monitor.

"Digi-port open." She hissed as a program installed on the computer and opened. She heard someone coming and hid the program.

"Yeah Cody. Just let me check something on the computer." A lavender haired girl called out as the woman stepped forward and vanished, leaving no trace she was ever there. The girl opened the door, walked up to the computer that was still on and opened an internet browser window.

* * *

Japan Fact - Railway: Public transport in Japan is one of the most efficient and well developed on Earth. With the railway network, this is due in part to the number of railway companies that compete in passenger transportation markets. The Japanese rail industry's claim to fame is punctuality setting a high standard in the eyes of the Japanese public, and apparently, the digital world.

Terran Fact - It's beginnings: The Terran Commonwealth is an intergalactic nation, comprised of a number of species, planets and star systems, with Earth at it's centre. The commonwealth's history is argued by historians to have began in 1971 when a start ship crashed into the north of France. Others argued that it began in 2002 when the United Nations disbanded. The symbol of the commonwealth is the seven point star.


	2. Takuya's Flames of Courage

**Chapter one: Tai's Flames of Courage**

Takeru Takaishi locked his tablet with a look of confusion on his face. Since when did Koichi have an older brother? He let out a sigh, stood up and walked to the window that looked out into an open park outside the Odaiba Consent Hall where his brother's band was playing. They just finished their encore and the four musicians started small talking.

All but one. Matt walked up to his brother and asked him what he thought of the consort from the sidelines. He didn't think it was wise to put his brother in the middle of a crowd of screaming fans. They heard a girl screaming as she ran up to the blonde haired siblings, a marron haired girl wearing a white shirt with a number of signatures on it. Immediately, she asked Matt for an autograph and handed him the marker.

"Sure." Matt complied with a bored tone in his voice. The girl turned and Matt began writing. "What's your name?"

"Just make it out to Jun Motomiya." The girl said. "I get all the cute boys to sign it. You may not know it, but I haven't washed this shirt in two years."

"There's not a lot of room." Matt commented.

"I know. I think all boys are cute." Jun replied just as Matt and TK's phones went off. Each had a message.

"Come to the digital world. The digimon need our help. Are you ready to begin?" Both messages read.

"Some sort of danger in the digital world." Matt concluded. "I hope Gabumon is okay." He handed the marker back to Jun and pushed yes.

"Yamato Ishida. It is time Matt." A voice called out from his phone. "Go to the computer lab at Odabia Junior High. Await further instructions there."

Matt turned to his brother who was looking at his phone with a confused look on his face. They ran off leaving a very confused Jun in their wake.

* * *

"It's really not a problem Tai. I need to take some photos for the school newsletter anyway." Kari assured her brother, the bushily haired high school student and assistant coach for the local junior high soccer team. Hikari Kamiya followed her older brother towards her school of Odabia Junior High. She had grown a little since her trip to the digital world. But she still hoped that she would see the digital world, and Gatomon.

Kari Kamiya didn't know it yet but today would the day. She arrived with her older brother Tai. She wanted to show support for her brother whom had taken an assistant coach internship at his old elementary school. The coach had to take the weekend off so Tai was solo on this game and Kari was more then happy to help with the equipment. He took his soccer very seriously and got competitive. She hoped it wouldn't be the case here, and thankfully, her fears were unfounded so far. But he should stop worrying about her being her after the last time she came with him to a soccer game.

During half time, she took a few photos for the school newsletter. She had a good one of Davis lined up until… someone ruined her shot by bumping in to her.

"Ow. Sorry. Didn't see you there." Someone told her while helping her up to her feet. "Are you okay?"

She got a look at the guy who bumped into her. He was tall, brown hair, brown eyes and a year or two older then her. He wore a teal hat and a pair of squarish googles, the visiting teams soccer kit, a blue and white shirt, and blue shorts. He had that dorky smile that she could almost mistake for her brother's. She was almost at a loss for words until she found the ability to reply.

"Yeah. I'm fine." She said feeling the blood rush to her face.

"Good to hear." The boy said back.

"Hey! Takuya!" She heard someone from the visiting team call out.

"Coming Kazuko!" Takaya called back. It was then she noticed the ice pack in his hand. She remembered briefly that one of the players from the visiting team had spanned his ankle. "I need to…" He pointed to the bag. She nodded but found herself following. "I'm Takuya by the way."

"Kari Kamiya." She returned.

"Kamiya? You're brother's the coach right."

"Yep." She turned to her bushy haired brother, watching him give an encouraging speech.

"Something tells me he's given that speech before." Takuya noted as he gave one of the boys, obviously the one with the sprained ankle since he was lying across the bench with one raised over the other. He healed the bag of ice on the sprain. They heard the ref's whistle, and both teams went back to the field. Save the boy with the sprained ankle. Kari watched from the sidelines, suddenly getting the feeling that something was wrong with the world.

She was right when she heard something attached to Tai's belt start beeping. And in a spit second, he was gone.

"Tai?"

* * *

"Agumon! Gabumon!" Tai ignored the headache as a mixture of joy and fear overcame him. Agumon, his partner, more then that, his adopted little brother. He found him on lying on the ground, not injured, just tired, and very afraid.

"Tai!" Gabumon was overjoyed to see Tai, like an old friend. If he was here, Matt couldn't be far behind.

He helped the both reptiles to their feet. "You've got to digivolve."

"That's why we need your help Tai." Agumon explained as the bushy haired teen fished out his digi-vice. It beeped over and over but it wouldn't respond.

"We can't digivolve." Gabumon clarified.

"Did you two forget how?" It's like riding a bike." Tai demanded, hearing a familiar sound. "Run!"

* * *

"Ow." Neemon moaned, face half berried in the dirt. A purple light filled the clearing and Blake stumbled into the clearing, ungracefully but feet still on the ground, and standing upright. Bokomon followed, tumbling into Neemon, books flying into the ground. "Ow." Neemon moaned again.

"You'll get used to it." Blake dismissed, looking around the clearing, finding a patch of scorched earth. That made him wonder what went on before he arrived.

"Hey!" Neemon called out, holding up a gold ring.

"Neemon. Where did you find that?" Bokomon asked.

"In my mouth."

"How unsanitary." Bokomon noticed something about the ring. "Wait a minute. That's a tail ring belonging to a Gatomon." To clarify, Bokomon open one of his books and showed Blake a drawing of a strange looking cat, and a close up of it's tail ring.

"So a Gatomon would be missing it?" Blake asked, pocketing the ring in his duster.

"Very likely." Bokomon slipped the book into his hamaki.

"I found another shiny!" Neemon yelled, picking up a black ring, decorated with digi-code.

"Hello. What in the seven systems of the commonwealth do we have here?" Blake asked taking the ring from Neemon.

"I've never seen anything like it." Bokomon told him. "But I don't like it one bit." He opened one of the books trying to get an idea what it is.

Blake examined the dead ring like a mutant rose, make more beautiful by it's imperfections. He produced a smartphone from his pocket, a see though touch screen device with an apple logo on the back. The device lit up and quickly, the ring flared into life again. Blake read the details on the device, then smiled when the electromagnetic emulator picked up a frequency.

The first thing he heard when he opened it was chuckling. "It's no use." Blake heard a voice coming though the device. Bokomon produced a pencil from his hamaki and started writing on a scrap piece of paper. "As long as I have the black digi-vice, there's no way they can digivolve."

"They come in black? That'll appeal to the goth subculture. They do love their things in black those guys." Blake told Neemon.

"Yay!" The rabbit cheered.

"Wha.. What?"

"But knowing you, I'd say, you wear lots of black and purples. Oh gold shoulder pads! Seriously. It's so hard to find a bad guy that's not stereotypical. And these things." He shock the ring. "Don't get me started. Is it so much to ask for a little originality."

"Who is this?" The voice demanded. Instead of answering, Blake just hung up, only to find the voice was coming from else where. "Who do you think you are sneaking into the digital world?!"

With a board expression on his face, Blake turned towards the voice. "Look kid. I don't have…" He stopped and gave the hologram a good once over. It was an image of a eleven year old boy with blue spiky hair, thick frame sunglasses, and a cape decorated with yellow shoulder pads. An obvious hologram. "See. Invasion of the eighties has-beens. So what is it to ya mate? If your customs, I'd be quite happy to show you my…"

"Ordinary people aren't allowed in the digital world. Only the digi-destine are."

"Oh. Okay. I must have missed the sign." He turned to Neemon. "Why didn't you point it out? I could have blatantly ignored it."

"There was a sign?" Neemon question.

"Why are you telling me this now?" Blake turned back to the hologram. "Sorry. You can list me as blatantly ignoring any and all keep out signs that are in or around this area. Now if you don't mind, I need to commit an act of breaking and entering to go with my act of trespassing. And if time permits, some charges of disturbing the pe…"

"What a minute!" Bokomon interrupted. "Does he mean Takuya and the others?"

"That's physically impossible." The hologram noted.

"I don't know. A very high bar as has been set for impossible, physical or otherwise." Blake muttered smiling. "You've got time rifts opening up, if you haven't noticed. No wonder we missed the sign."

"Why's that?" Bokomon asked.

"It's simple. Based on the laws of physics, I have determined that only perfect human beings can be digi-destine. And of cause, I am the only perfect human being." The hologram boosted. "You are an intruder in a place where you don't belong. Your are ordered to evacuated the premies without further notice."

"Sorry? You say something?" Blake pointed to his ear. "I can't hear you over that ego of yours. But doesn't do anything for my sense of smell." He went on, sniffing the air. "If Glenn was here, he'd be howling mad over it by now. Lycans, you know." He said to Neemon.

"Why does everyone question my authority? Must it always turn into a great big production? Get him Vegimon!" The hologram vanished and a large red vegetable rushed him. All three leapt out of the way and the vegetable turned to Neemon.

"I don't even want to eat my vegetables!" He yelled as twin vines went after him.

"Fortunately…" Blake started as his katana fell from his sleeve, the blade extended from it's handle until a yard of curved steal was available. "I always did." He ran at the Red Vegimon, sword glowing a toxic green.

* * *

Click.

Kari took the final photo. The two team captions shaking hands. The home team had lost by two goals but both sides had fun none the less. However, Kari was more focused on Takuya. Every time she would sneak a glance in his direction, he would notice and she would look away with a blush on her face.

Takuya on the other hand congratulated his team mates, and the other team for a great game. He then his thoughts drifted back twelve months, when he came back from the digital world. Ever since then, he's been spending more time with his brother, not to mention making more time to hang with his friends, J.P, Koji and Koichi, Zoe and Tommy. Though Tommy was more difficult since his brother, Yukata, became suspicious of why he's former tormenters became his friends, how he suddenly matured overnight and why he started hanging with Takuya and the other Legendary Warriors. So far it was harmless. Shopping trips lead by Zoe, soccer games with Takuya's dad, arcade one on ones, just normal teenage stuff. Then there was meeting JP at the boxing gym he joined after the digital world, Tommy had to avoid that like the plague or risk giving his brother the wrong idea.

Speaking of, Tommy ran up to the warrior of flame. "You were amazing. That head shot was awesome Takuya."

"Thanks Tommy. Means a lot coming from you." He saw Kari glance in his direction for the fifth time today. "Tommy. Why don't you wait for me for a moment. We can go catch up with Zoe and JP later." He called out to Kari as Tommy ran off. "Hey!"

Kari smiled before turning to Davis for a moment. "I'm sure he'll be back soon." She reassured Davis. "Could you get the equipment. I still have the key to the equipment shed."

"Sure." Davis said, like a love sick puppy, eager to do anything to please Kari. There wasn't much to grab. Just the ball and a few things the coach and ref use in the game. When he ran back towards Kari, he saw something that nearly ripped his heart in two.

Kari was talking to the Kanbara guy. The caption of the other team. Not just talking, laughing.

"Hey buddy!" Davis called out confronting the other guy.

"First of all, my name isn't buddy. It's Takuya. Second, what's gotten you railed up?" A sudden look of realisation appeared on his face. "I get it, your jealous."

Kari watched scene unfold as she got a message on her phone. "Come to the digital world. The digimon need our help. Are you ready to begin? Yes. No."

"Weird." Kari thought as Davis and Takuya looked over her shoulder. Davis had the same look of confusion but Takuya nearly feel backwards in shock. Panic overtook him while at the same time, a wave of anticipation ran over him. The idea of seeing the digital world again, welding the power of Agunimon, warrior of Flame. He cursed to himself for not bring his phone with him, instead, leaving it with his street clothes in his duffle

Kari looked at the sender. It was from Tai.

* * *

"Chilly Pepper Pummel!" Blake didn't need to block this one, just slice the peppers in mid air by spinning the blade in his hand.

"You call that spice." He raised the combat field to his head and rushed at the digital weed. He was knocked back into the bushes where he dashed off. "Well. That was dull." Blake moaned, sword folded up and slipped into his sleeve. He went over to pick up the black ring and place it in his backpack. As he did, Bokomon heard a roar, belonging to a Snimon…

"I may have something to remedy that.." Bokomon pointed out, a giant praying mantis with sickles for hands. "Look out!"

All three dived out of the way as an energy blast hit the ground. "What is that?" Blake called out, weapon drawn, holographic targeting locked on the attacking digimon.

"Snimon; Vaccine attribute champion digimon." Bokomon explained. "It's special attack, Twin Sickle with cut anything down to size. And I mean anything."

"And it flies." Blake pointed out as Blake produced one of the weapons from his duster pocket. "Sickles for hands. Flying incest. And doesn't seem hospitable. With all the givens, I'd say… run!"

They didn't need any other incentive. They ran.

"Twin Sic…" Snimon was interrupted by a trio of bight lights. Photon bullets, burnt like little drops of flaming rain. Blake renewed his sprint, weapon still in hand.

"Move your tail!" They heard up ahead. Neemon ran right into the owner. A white car with large blue eyes, a long tail and gloves on her forepaws. Without stopping, Blake holstered the weapon, grabbed Neemon by the ear, cat by the scruff of the neck and ran towards where it was pointing, an opening in a mountainside.

They made it inside and Blake dropped the two anthromitphic animals and leaned into the wall.

"Where'd you come from?" He heard someone ask. Blake turned, finding a bushy brown haired boy, his age, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"It's complicated. And I really mean it's complicated." Blake answered.

"As in birds and bees complicated?" The boy asked in disbelief.

"As in, multi-dimensional, question everything you know about the laws of physics, complicated. Blake Steorra by the way." Blake offered a hand. "Nice to meet ya mate."

"Tai Kamyia." The boy introduced himself, taking the hand. "This is Agumon." He pointed out, the orange reptile who bowed restfully. "And Gabumon." And the other reptile, wearing a fur coat who waved. "You already meet Gatomon. Your digi-destine right?"

"I guess I am." Blake said a little confused. "These are my charges, the all knowing Bokomon. And the dim witted Neemon." He introduced the two digimon in his care.

"That's a relief. I thought I would need to change my name again." Neemon cheered.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Bokomon said, slightly confused that Blake hadn't handed over the ring, now that they found the owner. "If your digi-destine Tai Kamyia, would you happen to know a Takuya Kanbara?"

He thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Name rings a bell. I just can't remember where. Hope he's partner is a fighter though. It looks like we need all the help we can get." He turned to the cave opening with a thoughtful look on his face. "Just how are we going to get it?"

In Blake's duster pocket, Gatomon's tail ring began to glow as the dormant powers of the celestial digimon began to work. Ophanimon's Plans in the past, and the tail ring's subroutines in the present. Both began to work together in harmony.

"Hey! Tai! Blake!"

* * *

Kari looked at the sender. It was from Tai. How did he get to the digital world? She remembered hearing his digi-vice beeping and before he disappeared. Was it the digital world calling him back? Without a second thought, Kari hit yes.

"Hikari Kamyia." Came a voice Takuya recognised straight away. Ophanimon. "It is time."

"Who… who is this?"

"Go to the computer room at Odabia Junior High School. Await further instructions there." The screen switched off leaving the three children bemused.

A determined look appeared of Kari's face. "My brother needs me."

All three of them ran towards the school, upstairs on the second floor and into the computer lab, where two girls, one red hair, sixteen, wearing a tennis outfit, the other a year older the Kari, lavender hair wearing a bandana, was hovering over the shoulder of a fifteen year old, wearing casual clothes with a darker shade of red hair.

Kari recognised the two older kids right away. Koushiro Izumi was the one sitting at the computer, the former computer club president. The girl was Sora Takenouchi, former soccer player, now tennis player with a soft mothering side.

"Izzy! We got a message from the digital world" Kari informed the boy who was recovering from the high pitched screech.

"We know. We both got one. It told us to open Izzy's laptop but the battery on his computer ran out." the girl informed the two younger digi-denstine, along with their company, Davis who was following Kari and Takuya. Takuya insisted on coming with Kari the moment he heard the words 'Digital world' come out of her mouth. He mostly wanted to know how they knew about the Digital World in the first place, let alone how they intend to get there.

"I knew I should have recharged it after playing trigonometry trivia on the internet last night. Talk about fun." Izzy reminisced as he typed away on the computer, trying to open a link into the digital world. "Instead the voice sent us to the computer lab."

They heard someone skid into the room.

"Izzy!" Matt called out. The elder blonde sibling arrived with his younger brother. "Sora!"

"You two got the message too?!" Kari asked.

"Yeah." TK nodded. "Good timing too."

"What's the digital world? Is that a new amusement park based on that computer game?" Yolei asked in her cheerful bubbly voice. "I bet they've got a lot of great rides."

"Trust me. They've got some wild ones." Takuya told her, thinking back to some of his memorable Trailmon routes.

"I heard about it from Tai once." Davis muttered to himself. "He said there was a lot of digimon there. What ever they are."

"You know Tai?" T.K. asked him.

"He coaches Davis' soccer team." Kari answered for him.

"Hey guys. I've got an idea. Lets all go to the digital world." Yolei called out. Takuya was about to protest and tell her it isn't all fun and games until another voice interrupted.

"Yolei, weren't you coming over?" Another student, Cody walked into the computer room. "Remember, you were going to fix my computer. Mom was going to make Brownies."

"Oh. Sorry. I forgot." Yolei apologised.

"Takuya!" They heard another voice from a boy, Cody's age, wearing a large orange hat, carrying a large duffle ran into him.

"Sorry." The boy said to Cody. "Takuya. Your phone was ringing. I got the message too."

"You too?" Matt asked, looking at the new comer and the other google headed boy as Yolei and Cody left. Yolei was more disappointed.

* * *

"Look at those." Agumon pointed out. In the middle of the cave, there were two egg shaped metals. One on the left looked like an pink rose, while the other was decorated with flames with a spike though the top.

"That red one has the crest of courage on it." Tai pointed out. "Are they eggs?"

"I've never saw an egg with a spike in it." Agumon observed.

"It must have been rough on the chicken that lied that thing." Gatomon added.

"I think we should be more concerned about what might hatch from them." Blake responded, noticing that Tai was leaning towards the flaming egg.

"Lets have a closer look at this thing." He grabbed the egg with both hands. The moment he did, it began to glow. As did the digi-vice in his pocket. But he was more concerned about the fact that his hands felt like they touched a hot stove. The light was more then enough to force everyone to shield their eyes until the red light died down, and nine whips of light began to form from the light. Each a different colour. Black, white, green, red, blue, orange, yellow, pink, and grey. Tai observed that they looked like fireflies. They hovered for a moment before zipping out of the cave.

Tai stumbled back, skin on his palms blistered.

"Second degree burns." Blake concluded, pulling out a titanium box with a red crescent moon on the lid, from his backpack.

Bokomon then remembered something. "Blake. Where's the case holding the sprits?"

In answer, Blake pulled out the case containing the sprits, with little difficulty, much to the surprise of the gathered digimon and humans. Even Neemon wondered how a case almost twice the size of the bag could fit in side it along with the one holding the sprits until he got an answer. "It's bigger on the inside."

"No you nit! That's impossible." Bokomon scolded. Blake chuckled knowing that was the only explanation, and the dim witted rabbit was right on the money. Though, he was more concerned about treating Tai's burns.

* * *

"It's open! We're going back to the digital world! Prodigious!" Izzy cheered, grabbing his digi-vice, a small, circle device that confused Takuya. It didn't look like a D-tector, but it felt like the genuine article.

"I'm going with you!" Davis told them.

"That's impossible." TK stated.

"What?" Tommy asked in disbelief.

"Not just anyone can go. You need a digi-vice." TK continued.

Takuya slumped his shoulders in defeat. His D-tector turned back into a phone when Koichi was revived. And that phone was passed to Shinya in turn. Davis on the other hand refused to give up.

"Listen TC!" Davis yelled at the younger blonde sibling. "If you can go! So can I!"

At that moment, the digital gate on the computer opened, and nine wisps of light flew out of the computer. Tommy caught the grey wisp, Takuya caught the orange and Davis caught the blue. The black, white, pink and green wisps flew out the window while the yellow and red ones flew out the door to be caught by Yolei and Cody.

Meanwhile, outside the Junior High Building.

"Come on Zoe. I don't want to be late!" JP ran towards the building with Zoe behind, wondering how the formally overweight boy could now have enough energy to run from the Mall to the school with eight bags of shopping in his arms. She knew that the old jumpsuit was hiding more then a few pounds of body fat but this was…

She lost her train of thought when two wisps of light flew out of the window above. The green wisp headed for JP while the pink wisp came right for Zoe. Both caught in their hands.

The black and white wisps headed across the Rainbow Bridge and made a beeline for a train with a set of twins, not going unnoticed by a young man who had given up on following his brother.

Back in the computer lab.

"What's this?!" Davis showed the device that landed in his hands to the others. The the surprise of the others, it was a digi-vice. A different model to the rest. Izzy made a note of the features. Infered scanner, card reader, and an antenna on one side of the screen. Takuya found the familiar colour theme comforting, but the device felt empty. He guessed he needed to find Agunimon's sprit again. They turned to the computer.

"We better go now." Sora told them.

"While the gate to the digital world is still open." Izzy added.

"Yeah but how long will it stay open for?" Matt asked.

"I don't care." Kari said with conviction setting the serious mood. "I'm going to help my brother."

The mood was then broken by Davis walking up to them "Can I get Donkey Madness on this thing?"

"It's not a game." Izzy reprimanded calmly. "If the digital world sends you a digi-vice, then there's a reason and you should take it seriously."

Takuya thought on those words a moment. One thing for sure, these guys were in fact digi-destine.

"I'm not waiting any longer." Kari snapped, placing her digi-vice to the screen. The screen glowed and she was swallowed by a blinding light. When the light vanished, she was gone.

"Wait for me." Takuya yelled, doing the same, placing his familiar red and black digi-vice up to the screen, he disappeared into the light and he was gone.

"I'm with you two." TK was next, raising his digi-vice to the screen and he disappeared.

"Don't leave without me!" Tommy called out, raising the blue and green digi-vice the screen.

"Don't leave me out of the action." Matt said as he raised his digi-vice to the screen. Both of them disappeared in.

Davis watched the whole thing, mouth opened and very scared now. He almost missed Izzy telling him it was his turn. He shock away the fear and raised the device to the computer. "I'm there." He was swallowed by the light, and pulled into the digital world.

"Your turn Izzy." Sora told the boy. Izzy produced his digi-vice, raised it to the screen…

"What's going on in here!" Came a voice…

* * *

"Wow. My first time being downloaded." Davis said in awe. He, Takuya, Tommy, Kari, TK and Matt arrived in a familiar, lush forest. Tommy was still holding Takuya's duffle, Kari holding her Digi-vice in hand, looking for her brother's digi-vice signal. She found it, along with Matt's and TK's but she couldn't find any of the other signals of the new digi-vices. Making a note to ask Izzy about it later, she lead the group towards her brother.

"Everything looks different Takuya." Tommy pointed out. "How long have we been gone?" He asked.

"Well, we've been in the digital world for months and it seemed like only a few hours in the real world Tommy." Takuya reminded him.

"This place doesn't seem so scary." Davis observed. "The way Tai put it, there were monsters everywhere." He noticed something in the corner, causing Takuya and Tommy to notice. It was a vending machine. Davis approached it, with a coin in hand. Takuya began to debate wether it was a good idea to tell him that yen was no good in the digital world until something other then a canned drink fell out of the machine.

TK, Matt and Kari heard the noise, turned to see that a river of Numemon had decided the group, with Davis sitting in the middle of it, unnoticed by the slug like digimon. Even Kari had to stifle back a laugh.

"Haha. Very funny." Davis shot at TK. Takuya offered a hand.

"You have to admit, it was a little." Takuya reminded him. Davis rejected the offered hand and helped himself up and the six continued walking.

"Were those things digimon?" Davis asked the obvious question.

"Yep. There're tonnes of other ones too, a lot cuter then those." Kari answered.

"And a lot scarer ones too." TK added.

"Numemon aren't great fighters at least." Matt added. "Unless they're in large groups."

"Tai!" Kari called out when a familiar bushy haired teenager ran out of the clearing.

"Hi guys.! I'm glad you all made it!" Tai yelled, Agumon, Gatomon, Gabumon following, along with two digimon and a human Kari had never seen before. But the human looked familiar to Takuya, but the digimon were a defiant to both him and Tommy.

"Tommy! Takuya!" The rabbet wearing a pair of red pants ran up to the two.

"Neemon!" Tommy yelled, glad to see the dimwitted digimon again, embracing him in a hug.

"Bokomon!" Takuya called.

"Takuya. Tommy. It's so good to see you again." The white digimon said to the google head.

"Tai!" Davis called out. "I told those guys you'd be alright."

"Davis? Wh… what are you doing here?" Tai asked confused. "And who are you guys?" He pointed to the two unfamiliar boys, with the digimon he thought were Blake's partners.

"You can talk." TK said. "Who's that?" He pointed to the other human. "And where's Patamon?"

A gasp bought their attention to Kari, with Gatomon in her arms. "Your tail ring. Tell me what happened."

"One day this bossy human appeared and began making digimon into his slaves." Gatomon explained as they walked. "He said 'I am the digimon emperor!' I heard we're all gonna punch a time clock too."

"More humans?" Bokomon said surprised.

"Well there goes the neighbourhood." TK muttered.

"And he's got this strange new black digi-vice that makes us unable to digi-volve. And there are also rumours that the catalyst had disappeared from Infinity Mountain." Gatomon continued. The human produced a new digi-vice from his duster pocket, a black device with gold handles.

"Does it look anything like this?" Blake asked. The cat digi-mon looked at it with supposition, comparing it with the one she saw the emperor with but had to shake her head, seeing the buttons in the wrong place, the hexagon around the screen and the inferred scanner.

"Hey! That looks like one of the digi-vices that came out of the computer!" Matt pointed out. "Where did you get that?"

"It was given to me by an angel attribute digimon." Blake answered, catching the attention of Takuya and Tommy. "Lady Ophanimon."

'So that's what came out of the egg when I picked it up.' Tai thought to himself leaving what Blake answered unheard, narrowing his brow in thought. 'Nine new digi-vices. Did Davis, Takuya and Tommy get one? What's their purpose in the digital world? And who got the other digi-vices?'

"You know Lady Ophanimon?" Takuya questioned in shock.

"He was charged with protecting us and the sprits until we found you and the other warrior hosts." Bokomon answered. "Blake Steorra was chosen by the celestial digimon because of his experience, not only in arcane and close quarters combat but in diminutional and time travel."

"In other words. I'm a dimension jumper." Blake clarified from Takuya's side, slipping his hand away from Takuya's pocket. This didn't go unnoticed by Bokomon or Tai. Both questioned the gesture, but didn't voice it. "Now that I've delivered you two, I don't like where I've brought you guys to." Blake muttered, turning to Gatomon. "What more can you tell me about this Digimon Emperor? And his Black Digi-vice."

"The black digi-vice is draining our power, making us all weak as new born kittens. He also uses these dark rings to control us. Once they capture you, your a slave for life. These collars do everything but get rid of fleas."

"I know. He's watching us right now." Blake pointed out. The group stopped and turned to where he was pointing. Floating in mid air was a control ring. Faster then anyone could blink, a gun was drawn, a bullet of photons was fired, and the ring was hit, braking up into a dozen or so pieces. "He's toying with us."

"Digimon Emperor." Kari spat. "I'd like to slap a control ring around him."

"Get in line dear. I get first stab. You can have the remains."

"Well, sooner we get those sprits, the sooner we can start saving the world." Takuya said.

"Always in a hurry to get nowhere aren't we Takuya." Bokomon pointed out.

"Remind you of someone." Matt jabbed at Tai. He'd ident respond to the blonds remark, Tai was still deep in thought. Mostly about sprits. Bokomon brought it up before, and now Takuya.

"I'm guessing you were the lone wolf before you were whisked away to the digital world." Takuya pointed out.

"What makes you say that?" Matt asked.

"I know the type."

"Anyway, there's something you two need to hear first." Bokomon told them. "And something you might find interesting." They made it to the cave where the two egg shaped metals sat.

"That one looks like a deflated beach ball." TK pointed out immediately.

"No kidding." Matt sighed. "It's got a spike though it."

"That other one looks like a rose shape pillow." Kari mentioned. "Mimi would go mad over that. Maybe I should show her while she's still in Shinjuku."

"They're ores of digi-metals. The one on the left represents the attribute of courage. The other, kindness." Bokomon pointed out. "I'm just curious to why they're here. In our time, digi-metals were used as a peudso-digi-volving path. Some digimon like Veemon or Patamon with the digi-metal of flame could digivole into Flamedramon or Baromon but they'd have difficulty de-digivolving back." As he was talking, Bokomon opened the case that Neemon was carrying, retrieving a glass sphere with an orange light inside. Tommy recognised right away as the sprit of Agunimon, but there was something wrong with it. Wasn't it a totem before?

"Wait. Why did you leave them here?" Takuya asked as Tai finally pulled his hands form his pockets. Kari gasped, seeing the reddened skin. Tai was glad that the 'nanite cream' was working.

"What happened?" Kari demanded.

"The digi-metal of courage burnt him." Bokomon told them. "But it looked a lot worse a few minutes ago. What was that cream?" He asked Blake.

"Let's just say I've worked a few miracles in my lifetime." Blake said. "Besides, wasn't much of a burn, just second degree."

"Anyway, I'm not risking moving either of the metals without the proper… Neemon!" Bokomon yelled in shock. "Why are you sitting on that ore!?"

The whole room's attention shifted to Neemon sitting on the digi-metal of courage awkwardly. "I wanna be a mommy too."

"That is not an egg. Now get off before you… burn. Something's wrong here."

Blake shooed Neemon off the metal and picked it up, bracing himself for a burning sensation. Davis did the same with the kindness counterpart, not sure what to expect, but it was more like touching a car's hood, on a cold spring morning. Then something happened.

"Uh oh." Blake muttered as a purple light filled the room.

"Yahoo!" A blue reptile jumped out of the light and began bouncing around Davis, much to the confusion of the others. "Made it at last! Made it at last! I thought I was going to be torn apart in that vortex." When he finally stopped bouncing around, he raised a hand to Davis. "My name's Veemon. But you can just call me Veemon."

Davis on the other hand just blinked, not sure what to think of the strange reptile.

"Veemon; Vaccne attribute rookie digimon." Bokomon informed the others. "It's strong sense of justice is only matched by it's love of fun and pranks. It's Vee-headbutt will only prove how head headed he is."

"Nice to meet ya Davish." Veemon said, his lisp becoming more obvious. "I've been waiting a very long time to meet ya."

Finally finding the ability to talk, Davis spoke. "I think you got the wrong guy."

"Nope. Your the one alright. My last partner said I'd know my true partner when I meet him. Don't call Ryo a liar please."

'Ryo?' Agumon thought to himself. The name was familiar, but he couldn't remember where he heard it from. Then the whole cave shock.

"Great! Just what we need to go with a fun loving reptile!" Blake spat. "An earthquake!"

"No. Look up there!" Matt pointed to a hole that began to open and a grey monoclonius tried to make it's way though it.

"It's a monster!" Davis screamed.

"No. It's Monochromon." Bokomon clarified. "Champion level, Data Digimon, it's shell is harder then diamonds, and it'll blow you away with it's volcanic strike attack."

"Pepper Breath!"

"Blue Blaster!"

Both attacks just dissipated off his thick hide as the reptile made a counter attack. Tommy pushed Agumon out of the way just in time while Takuya pulled Gabumon towards him.

"We can't fight him in here!" Takuya yelled. "Everybody out!" He yelled, pointing to the exit, ushering humans and digimon out while shoving both metals in his bag, then running to keep up with Bokomon.

"Bokomon! Give me the sprit of flame!" Takuya yelled as they ran.

"What! Now!" Bokomon huffed as they made it outside. A poorly aimed volcanic strike nearly missing them, heading for Kari, who was pushed out of the way by Gatomon.

"I know you said there's no going back but they can't digi-volve." Takuya was now really worried, noticing that Kari wasn't moving.

Bokomon nodded, produced the glass sphere that he retrieved from the case earlier from inside his hamaki. "Just remember the responsibilities that comes with it my boy. Just say you'll accept the burden."

"I accept the burden okay." Takuya said. "Just hand it…" He was cut off by the sphere smashing and the burning orange wisp inside flying out and hitting Takuya in the chest. It started as a burning sensation that spread across his limbs and felt like he was burning from the inside until the sensation dulled, or he became more tolerant to the pain. He remembered this feeling, when he stood in the circle, surrounded by fire and light, when the power of Agunimon coursed though him. This time, it was stronger, like it was apart of him. It was him now. Takuya. Agunimon. Two faces of the same warrior.

'Takuya.' He heard Agunimon's voice. It was like an old friend returning from a long trip, far away, and seeing them again for the first time. 'Are you ready?'

"Lend me your strength Agunimon so I can help them." Takuya asked.

'Always when you need it.' He heard, he could have sworn he noticed Agunimon smiling as he spoke.

Fractal code appeared around Takuya as Monochromon's Volcanic Strike erupted from the tunnel, threading to burn Davis and Veemon to a crisp. Agunimon leapt out of the flaming shell, grabbed the human and digimon and pulled them from the path of the flaming attack before they were hit, then intercepted the charging controlled digimon, kicking him to the ground and landing on the other side of the clearing, standing between Monochromon and Kari, flames erupting from joints in his armour.

"He did it. He sprit evolved." Tommy cheered.

"Spirt Evolved?" Tai questioned.

"A human turned into a digimon?" Matt stammered in shock.

Monochromon recovered from the attack and charged at the biggest threat, that being Takuya. He knew he couldn't dodge the charge, so he had to meet it head on. It failed as he was thrown into the air.

"Takuya!"

In Tai's hand, his digi-vice began to glow and change shape, resulting in a larger device with an inferred scanner and a card reader. It looked like the ones Takuya, Davis, and Tommy were given, but with a different colour theme, orange body with blue buttons and white grips. The same thing happened to Matt's digi-vice, turing it into a newer model with blue body and silver grips.

A symbol appeared on the display, accompanied by a voice.

"It is time."

In that moment, he knew what Agumon needed. The energy his partner needed was no longer there and an alternate source was required. Takuya gave up a piece of his humanity, his sprit fused to his partner's, and Tai was willing to go further then that. Just not yet. But he felt the fires of courage burn inside of him. He had given up the crest for the sake of the digital world years ago, but it's power was deep in his heart, about to be let out. A ring of fractal code appeared around his hand and he swiped the code with the digi-vice's scanner.

"Execute: Digivolution, Activate."

To anyone watching from the outside, they could see the chosen of courage's hands envelope in flames while Agumon was cocooned in fractal code. Inside, Agumon's body began to strip away into a wire frame that began to grow in size until it was the size and shape of his champion form. A new skin began to form from the old skin and soon, he was Agumon no more and the fractal code disappeared. Greymon looked down at his opponent with fence eyes, and charged at Monochomon, locking him in place.

Takuya noticed the black ring around the dinosaur digimon's waist. He took the opportunity, charging at the stalemated opponent.

"Pyro Punch!"

There was a loud clang that echoed thought the forest… and the dark ring broke apart. Monochromon went limp in Greymon's arms as he and Agunimon were cocooned in fractal code again, leaving Agumon and Takuya when it vanished.

Kari ran up to the knocked out digital dinosaur, making sure it wasn't really injured. Takuya stood up looked at his hands with disbelief, finding the around it rippling like an aura of flame. He had a feeling that he was no longer completely human anymore.

Was that what Bokomon meant by burden?

"Hey!" Agumon said from behind. Takuya turned and found him offering a claw. "Your not a half bad fighter. It was nice working with you." Takuya took it, smiling.

"Your not so bad yourself." Takuya commented. "We gotta do it again."

"Sooner rather then later." Tai commented to the two. He showed them the lights on the radar feature of his new digi-vice, there were two lights a fair distance away from the centre.

"Izzy and Sora!" Kari suddenly yelled. "They must have gotten into the digital world too."

"We better find them."

* * *

Blake watched the scene with interest. Taking note of the technique, the personalities, and the situation. With the monochromon liberated, Kari was able to just walk up to him and rub his nose then wave him off.

"I can't believe that the digimon emperor can turn such a nice digimon into such a nasty creature." TK commented behind him.

"It isn't right." Blake muttered. "He has to be stopped." From inside his bag, Blake produced a control ring, sealed inside a plastic container that dampened signals and sound. He thought that it might be the key to shutting off the control rings for good.

As for the fight, he could have intervened at anytime. He wanted to see what these guys would do. He fiddled with his digi-vice in his pocket before asking himself a question…

Why was Tai's hands burnt by the metal of flame when his weren't?

"Blake! Davis! Tommy!" Tai called out to the distant members of their group as Blake pulled out a sphere from his bag. A device from his city. His time. His world.

* * *

Dark Fact - Slavery: Slavery is not a new concept to humanity. It has existed in one form or another in the whole of human history. Though the social, economic and legal position of slaves varied from place to place, era to era, including the modern day. Human trafficking remains an international problem with an estimated 30 million living in illegal slavery.

Japanese Fact - Sports: A significant part of Japanese Culture and community, sports such as football, baseball, basketball and of cause soccer, all introduced by foreigners after the Meiji Restoration, are played across the country, including in after school activities. The most popular sport in modern japan is Baseball, introduced in 1872 by an american educator, Horace Wilson.


	3. Guilmon Comes Alive

**Chapter two: Guilmon Comes Alive**

Davis watched the whole thing, mouth opened and very scared now. He almost missed Izzy telling him it was his turn. He shock away the fear and raised the device to the computer. "I'm there." He was swallowed by the light, and pulled into the digital world.

"Your turn Izzy." Sora told the boy. Izzy produced his digi-vice, raised it to the screen…

"What's going on in here!" Yolei skidded to the door, interrupting the process.

"Huh!? Nothing." Izzy's device bounced in his hands as he tired to conceal it form the lavender haired girl and the bowl cut boy.

"But Izzy. What was that light?" Yolei demanded.

"Uh. The computer must need a new screensaver." Sora answered, rubbing the back of her head, a tell tail give away for her bluff. There was a knock at the door. A heavy set boy with brown hair and a slender foreign girl with long blonde hair stood by the door.

"I guess you guys got the message too." The girl said.

There was a flash of light, the two new comers, Yolei, Cody, Izzy and Sora vanished.

* * *

"I just remembered that I forgot to remember something. I gotta go." Joe really needed to stay, but this wasn't something he could just ignore. With his phone in hand, he walked out of the medical library reading the message again.

"The digimon need our help. Are you ready to begin?" It read. He had a feeling there was more. As much as he wanted to keep studying, but if the digital world calls, sooner or later, it'll be at your door step. The diablomon incident caused him to nearly fail his entrance exam. And Gomamon would probably run head first into anything, with or without him.

There was no question. He hit yes.

The phone switched off suddenly.

"Ophanimon wasn't going to lead you to the digital world." He heard someone say from behind. Joe turned suddenly. There was a woman, in a brown cloak. He couldn't see her face from under the hood.

"Who are you?"

"The woman with the message." She answered. "Mimi will be arriving at terminal two of the Narita International Airport in twenty minutes. By a crewel twist of fate, the town car her agent hired is going to suffer engine problems. Why don't you take your dad's car and pick her up and take her to Shinjuku Park."

"Why Shinjuku Park?" Joe asked. He could tell the woman was smiling. She was chuckling.

"Something is coming." She answered walking off. Joe followed but when she turned the corner down a dead end alley, only to lose her when she turned the corner, like she vanished into thin air.

* * *

"Neemon! Stop trying to grab the wheel!" Takuya scolded the digital rabbit.

"But I wanna try." Neemon protested.

"Knowing you, we'll crash before you figure out where the accelerator is." Bokomon said, amazed at how a machine this size could fit in a small sphere. Matter tectonics, Blake said but it was still new to him. He turned back to the conversation with Tommy. "And you say that the human world are full of these contraptions. Wouldn't be hard for them to move around."

"You have no idea." Matt told the scholar.

The silver jeep speed though the landscape, Matt, TK, Tommy and Takuya in the back, Kari and Tai sharing the passenger seat, with their digimon partners and entourages either sleeping, reading, or trying to grab the wheel. Blake slapping his hand away each time. It was surprisingly roomy, for seven humans and five rookie digimon.

"Must be a good book." Matt said to his little brother.

"What makes you say that?" TK asked, eyes not moving from the page he was on. Bokomon mentioned writing about Takuya's advatures and decided to read it. It was a testament to Bokomon's skills as a writer, and TK recently had an ambition to write about his own adventures in the digital world and penned out a few chapters of his time with Patamon. The same Patamon who couldn't tell you why he wore a pink hamaki, just that reminded him of Papamon. He didn't know that answers would be found in Bokomon's book. Some he would be forced to rewrite his whole view on the world.

"It shouldn't be too far. About an hour away." Tai said to Blake. The driver put on a sly smile. Time to show off a little.

"Let's try half an hour." He pulled a lever as the screen in the middle of the console read 'Anti-graves powering up.' The jeep shook as it began to ascend into the air.

"Are we flying?" Tommy asked dumfounded.

"Nope. Car's flying. We're just along for the ride."

* * *

Takato opened his eyes and raised his hands to rub out the dirt. He felt something rubbing against his side. He looked to see what it was… A large red dinosaur with big yellow eyes stood over him. Takato yelped and tried to back away until… he remembered something.

"Hi." The reptile said again.

He couldn't believe it. Guilmon. His creation. His own real live digimon. "Hi Guilmon." Takato said, hugging his new friend, only then he heard yelling. And then Guilmon began to growl.

"Guilmon?"

* * *

"Where did we disappear to Izzy!" Yolei yelled, angry as hell that she wasn't getting any answers from the red head. The had a dizzy ride though a vortex, her glasses were broken and Izzy was stonewalling.

"I told you already Yolei, I don't know." Izzy said, fearing the younger girl's wrath but still trying to fane ignorance.

"I'm not letting you off the hook that easy. I know you know were we are." She said, now wondering if it had something to do with what they were talking about earlier. And that message. "Now what is the digital world and what exactly are digimon."

"I don't know what your talking about." Izzy claimed.

JP felt sorry for the red head. Being on the sharp end of a woman's wrath, since he and Zoe began going out, just to see if it would work. A month later, neither had any issues. He found the youngest of their little group, standing aside, watching the fight unfold with disinterest.

"Think she'll give the poor kid a brake?" Sora heard the foreign girl ask her.

"I doubt it." She answered, turning to the girl. "I'm Sora by the way."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Zoe. You're digi-destine right."

"Yeah. How'd you guess?"

"I don't know. Bright light, big field, oh lets not forget the pink bird, red incest and the big eared mammal coming towards us." Zoe pointed towards a nearby hill where said creatures were running up.

"Biyomon!" Sora called out, catching Izzy's attention.

"Tentomon!" Izzy called to the digimon. Yolei was startled by the approaching digimon.

"Is that a Patamon?" Zoe asked, observing the orange digimon was wearing a pink hamaki.

"Izzy! Your a sight for big green sore eyes!" The insect called out.

"I've missed you Sora." The bird told the red head as the two embraced each other in a hug.

The reunion didn't last long. As a shadow fell over them, Sora felt a cold chill run down her spine. She looked up in time to see the praying mantis digimon close in on her.

"Pyro Sphere!" A yellow fire ball hit Snimon in the side of the face, causing him to miss, put two groves in the ground, and make fly back into the air again. Sora looked at her saviour, a large red dinosaur with black markings over his face, and yellow eyes that were focused on Snimon.

"Spiral Twister!"

"Boom Bubble!"

"Super Shocker!"

The partner digimon fired attacks in succession, Snimon dodging them, now focused on one target. The dinosaur. As Snimon got in close again, the dinosaur rolled out of the way.

"Guilmon!" They heard a voice call out. A google wearing boy, about two years younger then they are, stopped to catch his breath. "I really need to stop cutting gym class." He panted.

"Who's that?" Sora asked.

"No idea. And I've never seen that digimon before." Izzy answered and added, looking at the fearsome red digital dinosaur. He hoped that it was on their side. Then it happened… cracks in the ground began to form, and the ground opened, under Guilmon's feet. He jumped out of the way in time…

The same couldn't be said for his partner. He grabbed hold of what was nearest to him, which at the time, was Patamon. The little digimon did his best to keep the brown haired boy from falling in, but couldn't lift his weight. Takato fell into the hole screaming.

"Takatomon!" Guilmon yelled.

"Patamon!" Chosen children yelled.

"The ground just opened up and swallowed them." Yolei fell to the ground, she and Cody were shaking in fear.

"Well, I want to go home now." Cody said, hoping it was possible. All he wanted now was to see his mom and his grandfather again.

Guilmon turned his attention to the attacking Snimon, only ambition now was to find his tamer, his friend, his partner. He couldn't do that while he was under attack. Primal Instinct and rational thought renewed he's ferrous stance as he tackled the attacking digimon to the ground, biting him. Hard. Snimon struggled to get his arm out of the dinosaur's jaw, eventually slashing him with the other sickle.

Snimon flew off to lick his wounds. But more would come.

Sora and Zoe helped pick Yolei up from the ground. "We have to get away now!" Zoe yelled at them. No one argued. Not even Guilmon, who noticed that Takato's backpack was still on the ground. He picked it up. They all ran.

"I can't take this! I wanna go home!"

* * *

Takato woke up, head throbbing in pain. "That was not fun.." He muttered to himself, then noticing his surroundings, and his situation. He was staring out across a canyon range. And worse, his limbs were bolted to the side of a cliff.

"I… I must be dreaming again." Takato said fearfully. "Wh… where am I?"

"You're just hanging out." He heard a voice say. Takato turned his head upwards to the voice.

"Gee, thanks. I thought I was plunging to my death very slowly. That's a load off my mind." Takato said with confidence he didn't realise he had. "And you would be?"

"I'm your worse nightmare come to life." The voice said. Takato got a good look at him. He was just a kid. Older then him, sure. Spiky blue hair, thick sunglasses, a cape. "Frankly I'm disappointed that I was able to catch you so easily."

"You call that easy? Just great, I create a digimon, it comes to life, and now I don't get to enjoy it." Takato mattered, not noticing that his voice is carrying. "Think Takato. I'm starting to wish I paid attention in school. What happened to my digimon anyway?"

"That reminds me." The kid said, snapping his fingers, a section of the cliff broke off. It twisted until he saw a Patamon, gagged and struggling against his restraints.

"Ugh. I hate to say it, but you've got the wrong digimon." Takato said, pointing out the emperor's blunder. "Mine's the cool red one. Not that Patamon isn't cool. Angemon is pretty cool. But I think Agumon is cooler… ugh. I'm rambling aren't I. Just who are you? I don't remember Kenta saying anything about a weird kid in any of the computer games."

* * *

"I think we lost them." Izzy whispered to the others when they made it to a tropical forest of sorts. Guilmon moped about losing his tamer. There was so much about him he didn't know. So many things about him. So many smells.

"You guys okay?" Sora asked the unfamiliar humans. Zoe huffed out an 'I'm fine' while JP just nodded. They heard beeping from from their pockets. Sora, Izzy, Zoe, JP, Yolei and Cody produced their digi-vices, to find a symbol on them. Zoe and JP recognised what it was and the voice that came with it.

"Time is short children. Help will soon arrive. Go to the temple and retrieve the metals of Thunder and Wind." Ophanimon's voice said. The screen went black. Biyomon and Tentomon looked at each other.

"Did she mean that temple?" Tentomon asked.

"Maybe. No one's been there for a while." Biyomon answered.

"Temple?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. But it's closed down now." Biyomon answered, pointing to a large mayan pyramid.

"Well, if Ophanimon is leading us there, there has to be something important." Zoe noted as she took the lead.

* * *

TK shivered when he read the part about Duskmon being Koji's brother. It twisted as TK's heart, the thought of fighting your own brother. As he went on reading, the more he wanted to stop, forget he ever read this story, but something made his continue.

"They're stopping." Tai noted.

"Maybe they're going to the temple." Agumon told them.

"That's weird. There's another signal." Kari said, pointing to one of the white dots on the radar sphere.

Matt pushed forward to look. "What's he doing out there all alone?"

"Lets ask him and find out." Takuya suggested, pulling out his own digi-vice and pushing a few buttons before talking into it like a radio. "Hello?"

* * *

"Hello? Anyone there?" The emperor pulled out the strange digi-vice he took from the boy. A symbol had appeared on the screen, an orange kanji for fire.

"Who is this?" He demanded.

A voice on the other end sighed. A familiar voice. "Change the station please Takuya. First it was the Beatles and now it's the emperor. What's going to invade the radio waves next? Napoleon?"

The voices cut off. The emperor looked over the edge of the cliff. "Who was that?" He demanded to the boy he had bolted to the cliff.

* * *

"Did I just call the Emperor's digi-vice?" Takuya asked unsure.

"That gives me an idea. Kari, in my bag, there's a titanium case." Blake instructed. "I need one of the containers inside."

Kari did just that, found a titanium case, labeled with, 'Spyware devices' opened it and pulled out a glass petri dish. Inside was a chip. "What's this?"

"A bug." Blake explained. "Slip that into the emperor's black digi-vice and we'll hear every word he says."

"But if we have the digi-vice, why not just destroy it?" Tai asked.

"He could make a new one. At least with that inside it, we have a strategic advantage." Blake went on. "Besides, I imagine he talks to himself a lot."

"So were spying on him now?" TK asked incredulity.

"I prefer to call it staying a step ahead of the enemy. It might just make saving the digital world easier if we knew what he was targeting."

TK leaned back into the seat, only liking the answer a little, but in the end, he was right. Any advantage was a good one, especially with this adversary. He went back to Bokomon's story, where Patamon was attacking Velgemon.

Tai pointed out a large stone pyramid.

* * *

"I'm exhausted! Hasn't anyone ever heard of escalators!" Yolei voiced.

"Do you always complain this much at home?" JP asked the girl, only to get a slap over the head by Zoe.

"Just look at it this way Yolei." Biyomon assured her. "Only a few more steps to go." She presented the final staircase leading up to a pair of alters. Guilmon ran ahead to sniff what was on them.

"They look like digi-eggs." Sora observed. One was brown with a purple mark on it. The other was white with a pair of wings. Both had symbols on them that Izzy and Sora found familiar. Crests of Knowledge and Love. Sora and Izzy walked up to them and touched the eggs that bore the symbols of Knowledge and Love respectively. Izzy got an electric shock for his troubles, and Sora was thrown back into one of the pillars.

"Sora!"

"Izzy!"

"You guys okay?" JP asked, helping Sora to her feet.

"Yeah. Just some static electricity." Izzy assured him.

"Didn't sound like static to me Izzy." Tentomon interrupted. "It sounded more like… thunder."

"And I've got a splitting headache." Sora said, cradling her forehead in her hand. And the purple flash of light wasn't helping. Two digimon, one that looked like a hawk, and the other was more like an armadillo appeared and were thrown into Yolei and Cody.

"Apologies and greetings young lady. That vortex twisted all over the place. I'm Hawkmon and…" He turned towards the yellow armadillo. "Armadillomon. Wake up. We've arrived."

The armadillo opened his eyes after being prodded by the digital bird's wing. He yawned. "Why'd you have to wake me up? I was having the nicest dream. And I think my shell fell to sleep." He asked, noticing the humans and digimon staring at him. "Howdy."

"As I was saying, this is my good friend Armadillomon." Hawkmon turned to Yolei. "I've been waiting to make your acquaintance."

"You talking to me?" Yolei asked.

"Hi. I'm Armadillomon and you and I a partners Cody." The slightly sleepy digimon informed the young boy.

"Uh… well…" Cody was confused to say the least. Where did this armadillo come from? And why was it saying that he and him were partners?

"So then Yolei. You and I shall be working together as a team." Hawkmon reminded his human partner.

"What?" Yolei staggered back. "I don't fight. Expect with my sister about who gets the last cookie."

"Are you saying you refuse to fight? Why do I get stuck with the defective human?"

Sora smiled, reminded of Mimi, while Zoe giggled at the two. The blond girl placed a hand on Yolei's shoulder. "You don't have to fight if you don't want to." Zoe reassured her. "But there are some things worth fighting for, like that last cookie. No one's telling you to take on this responsibility. But if you do Yolei, you won't be alone."

"She right Yolei." Sora agreed, holding Yolei's hands. "You'll have Hawkmon by your side every step of the way. And the more you do to help your digimon, the closer the two of you will become. And that's a bond that you'll have for life."

"And you'll have us too." Zoe added. "No matter what."

The girls proceeded to reassure her, while Izzy and JP walked up to Cody.

"So tell us, what do you think of the digital world so far Cody?" Izzy asked.

Cody looked down. "I don't know. I've only been here for a short time."

"No opinions yet?" JP asked,

"I try not to make up my mind until I have all the information, but this place is so new to me, I have so many unanswered questions." He admitted.

"I'm pretty sure I know someone who can answer them for you." JP assured him. "Hopefully we can find him and that dim witted bunny. But until then, just remember that we learn from experience and from our mistakes."

Izzy nodded. "And if there's anything you can't solve, just come to me and we'll solve it together."

Their talks were interrupted by growling. "What's wrong dino-boy?" JP asked Guilmon. They heard footsteps.

"How many stairs can a mayan temple have?" They heard a boy ask.

"Too much if you ask me Tommy." An older boy said… a familiar voice. Matt's.

"Well just be glad that we're not starting from the bottom." Another voice.

"Besides, it's not like we don't need the…" Five humans and five digimon walked up the stairs. The humans were immediacy familiar. "Hey guys."

"Takky! Tommy!" JP called out.

"Matt! Tai!" Sora called.

"Hey TK, Kari." Izzy greeted.

"Bokomon! Neemon!" Zoe ran up to the two digimon and hugged them.

"Zoe, dear girl. You've grown since you departed." Bokomon observed. "And you've both lost weight too I see."

"Did your chest get bigger?" Neemon asked. In inappropriate question was answered by a scream and a slap from the blonde haired girl. "Ow! It was just a question."

"Neemon. You have a lot to learn about humans. Females most of all." Bokomon turned to Zoe. "Remember dear. He's an idiot. I see you've meet some more digi… what in the worlds is that?" He pointed to the red dinosaur.

"You don't know?" Zoe asked.

"I've never seen a digimon like him. Where did he come from?" Guilmon kept growling than ran down the stairs.

"Hey!" They heard a voice. "That tickles!" They heard scuffing and then a burp.

"Yummy." Guilmon said. "Have you got anymore?"

"That's new. A lizard that likes bread." The voice chuckled. "I'm surprised that I had that one. I knew it was there, I wouldn't have picked up the other loaf."

Another human, around Izzy's age reached the top of the stairs with the dinosaur following behind. Brown hair, pale skin and grey eyes. He wore a leather duster that was well used. "Sorry. Who does this belong to?" He asked, pointing to the reptile that was rubbing against his side.

"A kid that was swallowed by a hole." Yolei answered.

"A hole?" Kari asked in disbelief.

"Along with Patamon." JP added.

"WHAT!" Both Bokomon and TK yelled. "He have to find him!" Bokomon yelled.

"No problem." The orange hat wearing boy said. "We can grab our sprits and we can get them."

"Where's your partners?" Sora asked.

Takuya and Tommy smirked as JP and Zoe joined in on the inside joke. "That the thing about us."

* * *

"Let him go! He has nothing to do with me!" Takato yelled.

"Yeah right." The kid sighed. "You both have been trespassing on my garden without my permission. And as punishment. You be forced to watch as I make Patamon my slave."

A control ring appeared in the air and began to inch closer to Patamon as he struggled against his bindings. Takato was helpless to watch, hoping for something, anything…

"Attention Digimon Emperor! You are in violation of the Sentient Rights Movement, article seven epsilon. A class alpha violation punishable by execution. We have the area surrounded. Surrender now and we will allow you the choice of your termination." A voice yelled over Takato's digi-vice.

"Who is this?" The emperor demanded. "Who do you think you are?"

"You're smart. If you figure it out in time, you'll win the grand price. Oops. Times up. Time for execution. Time to execute. Kumamon!" The voice cut off.

"Blizzard Blaster!" A quartet of snowballs hit the control ring, shattering it into bits of data

"What!"

"Pryo Darts!" Small firebolt hit the restraints the kept Patamon and Takato bolted to the cliff face. Takato stared to fall.

"Hurricane Twister!" A stream of careful wind broke Takato's fall. What it didn't do was prepare the ten year old son of bakers for his digimon to leap on top of him in sheer joy. Meanwhile, the hamaki wearing Patamon landed on TK's chest.

"Great." The emperor turned away…

* * *

Kazumon landed at where the others had gathered. She handed the red and white device to Takato. "Here you go." She said. "I didn't catch your name either."

"It's Takato." He said as he inspected the device. He remembered the dream where the girl swiped a card though her digi-vice, and found a card reader on his own.

"And for you." Zoe gave the black digi-vice to Blake, who rushed into action, braking open the outer casing and wired the microchip in. He closed it just in time for the device to fly out of his hands, and into the Emperor's.

"Snimon!" He called out. The praying mantis digimon knocked a young clocked woman off the cliff, who managed to land on her feet and run off much to the confusion of the assembled children. "Mojyamon!" A large yeti digimon appeared from behind a cliff "Drimogemon!" The earth shock under them as a large purple mole with a drill for a nose dug it's way though the cliff rock. "Tyrannomon!" A large dinosaur jumped off the cliff top. "Get them all!"

"Divide and conquer." Tai whispered to Sora, Matt and Izzy. They nodded.

Takato walked up behind them with a set of cards. All of them digi-metals. "Here. These might help." He fanned the cards, letting Tai, Sora and Izzy take the three.

"Yolei! Get Hawkmon! You and I will help Zoe." Sora told the lavender haired girl.

"What?" Yolei gasped, following Sora and Biyomon.

"Cody?" Izzy asked the young boy.

"Uh. Armadillomon?" Cody asked his partner.

"I'm up for it."

"Come on TK." Matt called to his brother. "Takato?"

"Guilmon?" Takato saw his partner growl at the ground.

"Davis, Kari, Blake? Let's deal with frosty over there." Tai called out to his sister, follower and acquaintance. Blake's only response was a sword appearing in his hand.

* * *

"Twin Sickle!" Zoe dodged the shock wave easily, the praying manias digimon might have been fast, but so was she. She remembered her group's confutation with a Snimon, JP wouldn't stop talking about it.

"Spiral Twister!"

"Feather Strike!"

Three attacks came right for Snimon, a green spiral, a fast feather and a sharp fan. He dodged all three, only for the fan to come back around and clip his wing, forcing him to the ground. The feather and fan came back to their owners. The digital insect charged at Zoe. She moved out of the way at the last minute, only for Snimon to turn slightly and Sora and Yolei to suddenly stand in the path of his blades. Sora's digi-vice began to glow and change.

"Sora!" "Yolei!"

Sora pulled the digi-vice from her hand. The Red bodied, blue grip digi-vice glowed with a symbol. "It is time."

A ring of fractal code appeared around her hand and Sora scanned it with the new digi-vice. "Exacute! Digivolution Activate!"

Biyomon was cocooned in fractal code, inside the rookie digimon's skin was stripped away and the wire frame that was left reshaped and new skin attached itself to the frame, leaving a large flaming bird flying out of the sphere.

As Sora's digi-vice changed, Yolei looked at the card Sora give her. It had a picture of a familiar digi-metal. The title declared it as Digi-metal of Wind. She swiped it. The digi-vice lit up as Hawkmon was enveloped in a bright light. He emerged from it as a gryphon like creature that reminded Yolei of a figure in Egyptian Mythology.

"Tempus wing!"

"Meteor wing!"

"Tempus Twister!"

A trio of attacks went straight for Snimon, overwhelming the control ring, causing it to shatter completely. The digimon shock away the pain in his head before getting a look at the three champion level digimon that surrounded it. Seeing that he was out numbered, he fled.

* * *

"Thunder Fist!"

"Super-shocker!"

"Diamond shell!"

Tyrannomon shock off the attacks and powered up one of his own. "Blaze Blast."

All three digimon scattered, Cody looked at his digi-vice and the card Izzy gave him. It had the Digi-metal of Thunder on it. He reflected on what JP said, learn from experance. He wondered what would come of swiping the card though his digi-vice. He did and Armadillomon began to glow.

Izzy watched the fight from the sidelines. JP's sprit evolution was powerful and skilled, but he was suited for close quarters combat, and his fists weren't doing a lot on Tyrannomon, but the shocks were doing more when he get hits in.

In his hand, Izzy's digi-vice reshaped and changed shape until it became a new model with a purple body with blue grips. The screen lit up with a symbol. "It is time."

A ring of fractal code appeared around Izzy's hand. He scanned it with his digi-vice.

Tentomon was cocooned in a shell of fractal code, undergoing a digi-volution that he never seen before. He was, between the gaps of fractal code, that Tentomon's skin tore away, left a wire frame that reformed, reshaped into a familiar shape and new skin began to reattach. Kabuterimon flew out of the sphere and fired off a ball of electricity from his horn, stunning the Tyrannomon.

"Gold Rush!"

A set of drills fire from where Armadillomon stood, one of them colliding with the ring and causing it to shatter.

* * *

Guilmon ran across the ground in no particular order or patten, looking for the Drimogemon and also confusing it. Suddenly he jumped just as the large mole burst out of the ground.

"Blue blaster!"

"Boom Bubble!"

A pair of attacks made the mole raise his feet in the air in an attempt to divert them.

"Crystal Breeze!" Kumamon froze the ground under Drimogemon and caused him to move uncontrollably across the ground.

Matt pulled the digi-vice from his pocket as it glowed, reshaped and became a new model. A symbol appeared on the screen. "It is time."

Without thinking, Matt scanned the fractal code that appeared around his hand with the digi-vice. Gabumon was encased in fractal code, his skin stripped away, the frame reshaped, and the new skin reattach. Garurumon leapt from the cocoon and slid across the ice skilfully.

"Howling blaster!" A blue flame shot from his mouth and shattered the mole's ring around his arm. Dazed, Drimogemon slammed into the cliff face.

* * *

"Execute! Digi-volution Activate!"

Tai summoned up the energy he felt when he made Agumon digi-volve. The familiar feeling of something burning conviction inside his heart intensified as Agumon went though the familiar process of digi-volving into Greymon. On the cliff above, The emperor aimed his digi-vice at the fractal code cocoon, but what ever the digi-vice did to prevent them from digi-volving, it wasn't working on Agumon.

Davis flipped the Digi-metal of Flames card in his fingers. He wanted to join in and Veemon was only too happy to try out armour digi-volving. One swipe of the card, Veemon glowed, reshaped and became a taller reptile with hot rod armour. Flamedramon. As a test of his element, he grabbed an icicle that was thrown at him, and turned it to steam in a second.

The emperor was less then pleased. Blake could almost hear him screaming.

"Nova blast!"

"Fire Rocket!"

"Pyro Tornato!"

The three fire digimon threw what they had at Mojiamon, holding him still. Blake took the chance, charged at the yeti digi-mon, summoned up his mana and sliced though the digimon's leg. The glowing blade cut though the control ring like it was warm butter. But the leg remained completely intact. Mojiamon fell dazed.

"They did it!" Kari cheered. Blake looked up… the Emperor had cut his losses and vanished.

On his digi-Pliot, psychic link tech from his world, Blake opened the bug's frequency. In his head, he could hear the emperor fuming.

"They digi-volved. How could they digi-volve!?" He heard. "How did they find a way around my black digi-vice? No matter. Once that old network is online, it won't matter."

Old Network? Blake questioned to himself.

"Sorry we had to be so rough on you." Agumon apologised to the former slaves of the emperor. They left peacefully, complaining about how badly the emperor treated them. Bokomon and Neemon had ran up to the group, after they watched the digimon walk off.

"Papamon?" Patamon asked suddenly. "Papamon!" He jumped off TK's head and

"I don't get it." Gabumon said. "How did we digi-volve? We were right under the Emperor's black digi-vice."

"When I digi-volved, I felt Sora's love enter my heart." Biyomon stated.

"Sounds cheesy. But I felt something come from Izzy, like a sense of absolute conviction." Tentomon said.

"Funny you should mention that but it's like I gathered up all my love for my friends and family and focused it." Sora thought.

"Strange." Blake muttered. All of this was beginning to sound very familiar.

JP produced his digi-vice. Izzy had his cradled in his hand. They looked similar to D-tectors now.

"Good. The suns going down. Now we can relax." Patamon stated.

"Why's that?" TK asked.

"The digimon emperor never appears at night." Gatomon informed them.

"Still, there's a first time for everything." Bokomon put forward. "Who's to say he won't wake up for a midnight conquering? It's probably safer if we stay together.

"Probably much safer if we leave the digital world all together." Takato added.

"Yes, well. Too bad digimon can't enter the human world." Bokomon shot down.

"Says who?" Most of the original digi-destine's partners demanded.

"I think you might be wrong about that." Takato said. "Remember the Odiaba fog incident?"

"You heard about that?" TK asked the younger boy.

"How could anyone forget." Takato said. "Then that whole other world appearing in the sky, fight with Apocalymon. And the fight with Diaboromon on the… Wait." He pointed to Agumon and Gabumon. "It was you guys."

"Excuse me Tai, but it is getting late." Agumon pointed out.

"Yeah. We should get home." Tai reminded them. "If we can." A thought crossed Tai's mind, looking at Takato. He was told on the way over here that Takato wasn't with either group originally when they arrived in the digital world. "How did you get here?"

"Uh. That way I think." Takato pointed towards a familiar looking forest. They started walking…

* * *

Mimi stretched as she waited for her bag, letting out a long yawn as she did. The time difference between New York and Tokyo was disorientating, let alone the flight between the two cities. To say that she didn't notice the long blue hair aspiring doctor was understandable, but when she did, it was a shock.

"Joe? What are…" She stammered.

"Great to see you too Mimi. We gotta go." He grabbed the pink haired girl's hand and nearly dragged her out of the airport, if only she didn't yell in his ear.

"At least let me get my luggage. What's going on?" She demanded.

"I think a digimon is going to appear there." He answered.

"What?" Mimi exclaimed. "Why didn't you just say so? There's my bag." She walked over to the suitcase grabbed it and walked back over with a playful grin on her face. "I've never known you to rush into things like this."

"Just don't want to be late."

"Really? Someone might think you've missed all of the fun."

* * *

In a cave some distance away, the clocked woman let out a painful breath of air as she hobbled inside. She knew she twisted her ankle. It didn't matter, not for the moment. She slipped a hand inside her robe and produced a black and silver digi-vice. The feel of it seemed alien to her, yet it felt right. Every time she looked at it, a sense of belonging washed over her. All she ever wanted was to belong.

From inside her robe, she produced another device, an iPhone. The screen lit up as she unlocked it. She typed out a text message, sent it and brought the device closer to her chest. Everything would soon be perfect. She couldn't help them directly, but she could still do something. Put them on the right path. Leave them the right clues. Nudge them in the right direction. She pulled both devices back into her clock then turned to two egg shaped metals that sat on a table high ledge. One black, one white…

"Hope and light." She muttered to herself. She picked them up and walked out of the digital world, slipping though one of the many holes in the barrier between it and it's connected earth.

* * *

Terran Fact - Molecular Compression: What we perceive as solid objects is mostly empty space. It has been put forward that it is possible to compress solid objects for storage, the same way black holes crush entire solar systems, only the process is reversible. A similar idea exists in Japanese popular culture, Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball.

Mesoamerican Fact - Step Pyramids: The ancient Egyptians weren't the only ancient culture to build pyramids, though some of these structures were also used as a place of interment for rulers. The largest pyramid in central america is the La Denta Temple, reaching 79 metres high (260 ft).


	4. Revenge Gets You Nowhere

**Chapter three: Revenge gets you Nowhere**

"The stars are beautiful tonight."

"Not a beautiful as you."

"Oh you."

In Shinjuku, night has already fallen over the ward that sat in the heart of Tokyo. On one of the main paths, among the lush forage that began to grow back over the spring, a teenage couple enjoyed each other's company. It was intuited by a loud bang and fog filling the area.

"What's that?"

"Uh. The northern lights?"

Running towards the fog, a red haired girl mentally demanded her partner to get in gear. On the other side of the fog, a humanoid dragon and a dark skinned human set up a device that would lock anything inside the fog. But something was waiting inside…

* * *

"Remind me again why you are subjecting me to this torture." Jamie asked as she walked into a local bakery.

"Because you still lack one cultural study this year." Joey reminded her. "And you can't just read the guide book. You've got to throw yourself in the deep end. Eat the food, mistake corner for card and… what was my point again?"

"If it is anything like the commonwealth wide curriculum, you want me to learn the culture, history and lifestyle of a terran community that I am not already accustomed to. Why you made me chose Isolationist Japan is beyond me, as is your idea of visiting one in a parallel universe. Why couldn't we just visit Japan on Terra. The fact that it is floating above the planet is not a problem."

"This is more fun. And these guys have better Manga. Now lets hurry up and get something to eat. I'm starving."

Jamie pinched the bridge of her nose, silently cursing her ancestors for tormenting her with this human. He was tolerable when he was in front of a computer, but any other time, it was like dealing with a salamander on a sugar high, darting this way and that. The sun elven mage, dressed in what the locals thought was stylish, a yellow sleeveless hoodie with short brown jeans that showed off more of her legs then she would have liked, long socks that made it past her knees and a pair of fingerless gloves. Her long brown hair did well to cover her ears, but figured that no one would care if they did see. Joey on the other hand was wearing a brown button up shirt with a Godzilla undershirt and a pair of shorts that stopped just below the knee. The dark skinned aboriginal boy opted to wear a pair of googles around his head.

"May I ask, why a bread shop? It is the steeple food of any culture."

"Start off simple. Hey Cream Puffs!"

"I am beginning to think that metal of yours has interfered with your brain." She muttered walking up to the register with her selected sandwich.

"You two enjoying the sights?" The attendant asked, a man with light red eyes asked.

"As much as one can." Jamie answered handing him the money. "What would you recommend? I had hoped to watch the cherry blossoms but we may be too early."

"Actuarially, they bloomed just last week. I know there are a few cherry blossom trees in the park if you want to see them tonight."

"But it is April. Cherry Blossoms are not going to be in bloom until late October." Jamie pointed out, easily forgetting the differences between Terra and this earth's meteorological quarks. "Never the less, a night time stroll might do my friend the world of good. Thank you Mr…"

"Matsuki." He answered.

"Come along Par…" She smelt something… smoke?

"Bada boom!"

"Thank you." She said to the attendant, ran out side to see a puppy run by yelping, tail smouldering. She then looked at what it was running from, a small, pudgy little imp wearing a red bandana.

"What are you looking at?!" The imp demanded creating a flame on his finger tip and throwing it at the mage. Big mistake. Jamie caught it in her hand, let the flame snuff itself out and then turned to the stunned imp.

"Someone who is about to get a taste of what he paid for." She opened her hand, creating a fire ball about ten times the size of the one that was thrown at her and threw it at the little puppy kicker, intentionally missing him. But he didn't know that. He turned and ran, screaming while Jamie chuckled.

"You okay?" Joey asked the girl.

"Satisfied. I hope you got two cream puffs."

* * *

"I can't believe you decided to pick a fight with that mutt."

"Hey! After what he tried to do to the village, I had to do something."

Rika pulled off her sunglasses, spying a thin looking dog with a spiked collar standing over a pair of Toucanmon. A yellow humanoid fox with icy blue eyes, wearing purple sleeves around her wrists followed the girl though.

"Renamon." The girl said simply.

"I'm on it." The fox assured her as the dog turned to Rika, no longer caring about the two amour digimon. She identified it from the card she hand in her hand immediately as the digital birds ran off, she found herself not caring.

"Dobermon. Lets see… grey hound digimon, he's got a Black Beam attack…" She found something that interested her. "A champion level. Now that's a challenge. Walk all over him Renamon."

"He's toast." Renamon began to attack, kicking the dog in it's side, causing him to roll into the fence. The fox digimon leaped into the air and crossed her arms, a collection of glowing crystals appeared abound her and made an attempt to hit the dog, only he ran off before the crystals hit him. The dog charged at the fox. "He's too nimble Rika."

"I noticed." She produced a card from her pouched, the speed card. "This will do." She swiped the card though the D-Power.

Renamon prepared her attack again. Dobermon glowed red, then reshaped.

"Emerald Blaze!" Renamon was burnt by a jet of green fire that came out of the light. The red light died away and reviled a new digimon, a larger black dog with white hair, a long blade extending from each knuckle of each toe and a pair of heads for shoulder guards.

"He digi-volved?" Rika gasped, recognising the digimon as Cerberumon. "But how?"

"Where is he?" The dog growled at the girl.

"Rika!" Renamon ran towards the hell hound, only to get slashed by dog's claws.

"Stay out of this rookie." Cerberumon growled at Renamon before turning to Rika. "The warrior of flame? Where does he live?"

"I… I…" Rika stuttered. She faced a number of digimon with Renamon, but this was the first time Renamon lost and she was at the mercy of the other digimon.

Cerberumon walked closer… then smelt something familiar. "He's here." He growled. He leaped over Rika, making her fall to the ground, claws raised. "Styz Killer!" He cut though the fog and was gone. Rika fell to the ground, shaking in fear and from the lack of adrenaline. She didn't know how long she was there. Long enough for the fog to disappear.

"You okay?" Rika looked up to a young boy her age, black hair, tied back into a pony tail, under a striped black and blue bandana. Rika was momentarily lost in his deep blue eyes, like… She snapped out of her thoughts.

"Get away from me." She ran from the scene leaving the boy both confused and insulted in the torn up baseball field

"Your welcome!" Koji yelled then sighed as he wandered towards the west side of the part. "What was her problem anyway?" He muttered to himself as he fiddled with his digi-vice. When they flew into their hands, both brothers felt joy and anxiety that came with it. Koji wouldn't admit it in front of everyone, but he did miss those days in the digital world, though nearly losing Koichi after they found each other was a difficult idea to accept.

He turned back to where the red haired girl ran off to. There was something about her Koji found familiar,

* * *

Koichi himself wasn't having much luck, black and grey digi-vice in hand. A series of repetitive beeps lead him this way and that but the only common place it lead him to was a pond. Some movement in the water, and some in the bushes, nothing he thought worth looking into. He gave up and sat down on a park bench.

"Why would you want to watch Cherry Blossoms?" A voice demanded speaking in english, male, heavy with a southern accent… no. Somewhere else. Where?

"The same reason you behead zombies on the box." Another voice, female, greek? "It relaxes me. It also reminds me of the spring Festiables back in the Azure Fields. Though the field of sky blue and cotton white flowers is a luxury."

"I'm sending another long winded story about your old home. They never get old. Remember our little joint project?"

"How can I forget? Living code. Programs that evolve and adapt."

"Too bad the collage shut the project down. I would have loved to… I've been wondering, why did you yell at that guy?"

"Just something about him…" The girl started before trailing off. "Something… empty."

Koichi frowned. Strange choice of word to use as an adjective. Stranger still, he knew that she was describing the kind of darkness that was affiliated to Duskmon. A cold shiver made its way down his spine, like remembering an old nightmare.

"I am going to wander for a little while. This way, you will not need to follow me." The girl said.

"Fine. Lets meet at the train station before finding a bed for the night."

"Agreed."

The woman walked down the path towards Koichi. Bright blue eyes, long brown hair, a proud but humble air, and there was a sensation, like air, fire and light danced around around her, and a crackle of static followed in her footsteps. She passed Koichi but he swore that she shot a glance at him for a moment, and winked. He was about to follow her when a second pair of voices caught his attention.

"Run!"

"What do you think I'm doing?! Is he still behind us!?"

"I think he's given up." Koichi saw a pair of Toucanmon catch their breath on the cobblestone path. "Why'd you have to go pick a fight with that mutt?"

"It was a lot better then your idea. Jumping into that purple swirly thing, he wouldn't be crazy to follow us in to… where ever it is we are. Where are we anyway?"

"Why are you asking me? Why didn't you ask that human with the…"

"HUMAN!" They both exclaimed before faintly looking around and eyes meeting Koichi's.

"Yep. We're in the human world." One of them said.

"Guess we better find a village, or tracks or something. Hey!" The other called to Koichi. "I remember you. Your one of the legendary warriors."

"Yeah. We never got a chance to thank you for what you did for us."

"Leaving without saying good bye. So where are we anyway?"

Koichi just couldn't say, he stood their with his mouth hanging open, unaware of the shadow walking up behind him.

* * *

"Are you sure here?" Mimi asked, silently thanking herself for forgoing the ultra stylish high heals for stylish yet practical foot ware for the flight over.

"Well, she did say Shinjuku park." Joe answered as they walked towards the pond. "Not that she…"

"It's going to swallow our brains!" They heard a high pitch scream.

"Don't let it do it! I need what little brain I have!" Another scream, deeper, just as frightened. Both the aspiring doctor and fashion icon watched in confusion as an adolescent couple ran past them in a panic.

"You don't think…" Mimi asked only to be interrupted by their digi-vices beeping.

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Joe answered pointing towards the pond where the signal was coming from. They walked towards it, Mimi staying near the bushes and Joe drawing on what courage he would muster to edge closer to the pond. A pair of eyes looked back at Joe while the bushes shuffled next to Mimi. She let out a high pitched scream, heard by two boys as something white leapt out of the water yelling his name as a green plant ran out of the bushes, hugging the pink haired girl's leg.

"You miss me?" The playful white seal digimon asked. The half shocked digidestine gave a smile at his partner's old antics and rubbed his head.

"Have I ever."

"I made you a flower crown Mimi!" Palmon exclaimed, showing her partner the ring of daises she made which the girl was happy to accept.

"How'd you two even get here?" Joe asked, genuinely curious of how their partners got out of the digital world.

"It's the strangest thing. We were running for our lives then out of nowhere, there was this blinding purple light and we found ourselves here." Gomamon stated.

"What do you mean you were running for your lives?" Mimi asked, now very concerned, not only for her partner, but for the digital world in general, and the idea that she was going to miss her massage.

"This human has been making digimon his slaves for some time now." Palmon informed her. "We saw him forcing a village of Gazimon to build a large tower on the hill over their village."

"Why would he…"

"What's going on here?!" They heard a voice call out. Both digimon knew that humans shouldn't see them or they might get the wrong idea, so both retreated into the water or bushes, just as a dark skinned fifteen year old ran into the clearing. "Who screamed?"

"Uh. Sorry… I… thought I saw a spider." Mimi said trying to explain away the sound.

"You sure?" The boy asked turning to Joe. "This bloke an't trying anything funny is he?"

"What?!" Joe yelled, suddenly feeling like he should be insulted by the remark.

"What make's you say that?" Mimi asked.

"Just making sure." The boy said. "I don't want to see this lovely sheila be the victim of a bluey that got out of hand."

Both digi-destine raised an eyebrow. Sure, he was speaking japanese, but they couldn't understand the english words that ended up in his declaration. They spent a good while staring at the boy before another, a black haired, bandana wearing boy arrived.

"Is everything okay here?" He asked.

"We're fine. Really." Joe told both of them as another pair of voices came screaming and a pair of toucans ended up into the pond. The bandana wearing boy knew who they were off the bat.

"What are they doing here?" He asked as a white seal surfaced. "And you?"

"Me?" Gomamon asked. "What about those chickens?" One of the Toucans surfaced and spoke.

"You would too if one of the humans got attacked by a guy with a lot of eyeballs."

"What!?" The bandana wearing boy yelled, then heard beeping. The dark skinned boy produced a laptop from his bag, one Joe knew very well.

"Isn't that Izzy's laptop?" He asked as the boy opened it. Mimi walked up to the laptop and let out a sudden squeak. "What is it?" Humans began to gather around the laptop as digi-destine and digimon began to pour out, causing a pile up of humans and a smashing sound, much to the amusement of the digimon. Two wisps, one white, one purple escaped Blake's backpack, one flew into the bandana wearing boy's chest while the other flew in the direction the toucans came from.

"Get off! Your crushing my cream puffs!"

"That's not all they crushed."

Koji didn't wait around for anything. The moment he felt the wisp impact his chest, the moment he felt himself fuse with Lobomon's spirt, he sprinted off, running after the sprit of darkness, knowing full well were it would end up.

"Hey!" Gomamon yelled, as he, Joe, Mimi and Palmon gave chase.

"Was that Koji?" One of the boys in the pile moaned, a brunet boy wearing a light brown cap and googles.

"I think so." Another boy answered, a spiky brown haired boy wearing a blue jumpsuit.

"Guilmon? What's wrong boy?"

* * *

Whack!

"Koichi."

Whack!

"Koichi."

Whack!

The older twin inhaled and exhaled short breaths, unwilling to let Duskmon find him as he cowered behind the tree. The false warrior of darkness kept hitting random trees with his twin swords in an attempt to find him.

"Koichi."

Smash!

Duskmon roared in pain as Koichi felt something pull him deeper into the clearing, a hand dragging him by his shirt. What ever it was stopped pulling by his shirt, grabbed his hand and pulled him down, and pressed a finger to his lips. He saw who it was, the teenage girl that passed him before. She turned back, trying to spot Duskmon,She missed the wisp of purple light flying towards him and impacting with his chest. A sigh of relief went though him as he felt Loweemon's sprit fuse with his own, an old friend fighting by his side again. He wasn't the only one to notice. The girl turned to him with questioning eyes, and Duskmon shouted his name.

"Duskmon!" The girl shouted as she stood up. Koichi watched as she produced a silver rod from her pocket, it extended into a two meter long staff. She placed an end of it on the ground, just as Duskmon charged at them. Koichi flinched when the sound of glass reached his ears, a wall of light preventing the red blade from getting within ten inches of the girl's head.

She opened her eyes, after focusing her energy in creating the shield, her deep blues meet his crimson red. She momently took pleasure in the pain she caused him by throwing an elixir at him and hoped it would stay with him for his brief existence.

"Sinka ta'ir. Astara kaira wia nemom teua." She said. Koichi didn't recognise the language and didn't understand what she was saying. By the looks of it, neither did Duskmon, but he understood the venom in her words. "You might not understand them but those words still hold weight. You targeted this child, what do you want with him? Answer!"

Both Koichi and Duskmon were taken back by the girls tone. It wasn't because she was unafraid, it was more like she was acting superior to him. Duskmon laughed.

"Fine. You can answer to him."

"Howling Laser!" A bullet of light hit Duskmon in the back, causing him to cry out in pain. He turned and Koichi could see a tall figure with a wolf's mask and a long purple and blue scarf, much like the color theme of his armour. Lobomon. Koichi, in turned pulled the digi-vice from his pocket, created the fractal code around his hand and scanned it, becoming encased with both shadows and factual code before another tall figure leapt out smashed though the girl's shield, grabbed a spear out of thin air, and stuck Duskmon with it.

Another sword appeared in Duskmon's hand and he attempts to rush the wolf warrior.

"Poison Ivy!" Instead, vines were thrown out and hindered the false warrior of darkness attempt to attack by wrapping around his legs.

"Sharp Claw!" A small seal leapt at the tangled warrior and slashed at the armour, but did little damage. Duskmon just push those little annoyances aside but Lobomon wasn't going to let the opening go unclaimed. Charging at Duskmon with the sabres.

"How are you here?" Koji demanded.

"Doubt is a funny thing." Duskmon answered he blocked a rush from Loweemon. "How it can corrupt hope and twist it." With a sudden movement, both warriors tumbled into each other as Duskmon vanished and reappeared above them.

Two kids made it to the battle field intime to hear the statement, but nether couldn't stop to think about it as their digi-vices began to glow and change. They looked down to they that the devices that connected them to their partners had been replaced by larger devices with a new color theme. Joe's was dark grey with blue handles, Mimi's was now green with red handles. Both lit up and said three words.

"It is time."

Before they knew it, they scanned a ring of fractal code that appeared around their hand, their convictions, their hopes, their concerns fuelled their partners as they began to digivolve, cocooned in fractal code and emerged at their champion levels.

"Needle Spray!"

"Harpoon Torpedo!"

Both attacks hit Duskmon, causing him to faultier for a moment and stumble back. He found four champion level digimon standing against him. He reached out to the source of doubt, but found his connection cut off. With no other option, he retreated, fading into darkness and then into nothing, leaving the digimon to return to their rookie stages or human forms. Before either Mimi or Joe could ask, a large red digimon ran into their line of sight, followed by digi-destine and digimon.

"What happened?" Someone demanded, a brown haired boy in a black leather coat.

"Who are you?" Koji demanded.

"Just answer the question, we'll get to that later."

"It's gone Takatomon." The dinosaur said.

"What's gone?" The boy asked.

"Duskmon." The girl with the staff said. A look of relation went though four of the humans faces. "Explanations are paramount but we have yet to introduce ourselves."

"The girl is right." Bokomon said, standing in the centre. He looked towards the twins, the look in their eyes told him that the warriors of Light and Darkness had found their human partners. Bokomon looked at the two apologetically. "I'm sorry. I didn't give you the chance to refuse. Let's take a seat and we better talk." Everyone did as the wise digimon advised them, all of them sitting in a circle, digimon with their human partners. Mimi couldn't help but notice that Kari was sitting by one of the new boy's sides, the one wearing the brown hat, as well as Sora sitting closer to Matt's side then before. She was also aware of the blonde girl and the boy in the jumpsuit sitting closer together then the others. Tai on the other hand, took the lead and spoke up.

"Well I'm Tai Kamiya, and this is Agumon." He said, starting with himself and his partner, who waved a claw and gave a goofy, no worries smile. Koji rose an eyebrow at this, obviously a more mature version of Takuya. Tommy for the length of time he's known Tai thought he was the brotherly type, a lot like Takuya. He wondered if the googles had anything to do with it.

"This is Sora and Biyomon." Tai continued to introduce his friends and fellow former crest holders.

"It's nice to meet you all." Sora said, mostly to the two boy's she didn't know. Yolei expected the half withdrawn greeting. Zoe felt for the girl, and identified a true friend since they meet. On the walk though the digital world back home, she had talked about her mom and they had talked extensively on the topic of boys. The half italian girl knew that the red head had feelings for the blond rock star.

"Our resident rock star Matt and Gabumon."

"Hey." Was all the blond said. Takuya noticed that the greeting was genuine, cool, almost like Koji in his own way. Yolei nearly fell over, now releasing where she knew the boy from. The band teenage wolves. Her big sister wouldn't stop talking about it. Davis glared at the blonde. Many a good night was ruined thanks to him and Jun's obsession.

"His brother, TK and Patamon."

"Don't worry. I'm taller then I look." TK said, greeting them with something he recalled greeting the digimon when the first went to their world. This got a chuckle from anyone who got the inside joke. Koichi remembered TK well, but he couldn't help catch the glance of uncertainty in his eyes. Takato was confused at first but wondered if it was said earlier. Koji's eyes then widened at the realisation. This was the infamous TK, and the other legendary warriors had noticed the hamakari around his partner, and asked themselves if he was the same patamon that they traveled with.

"Fresh from america, Mimi and Palmon."

"Hi there." Mimi gave the unknown children her best smile. Blake swallowed unnerved, mostly by the color of her hair. He found bright shades of pink a very alien and unnatural color. Zoe was taken aback by the bubbly girl's personality, comparing it to Ranamon's, but there was something genuine about her smile.

"Our aspiring doctor, Joe and Gomamon."

"You two okay by the way? That fight looked brutal." Joe asked the twins. JP knew that was the doctor to be talking, but it was genuine concern, the kind of guy that was alway there when you needed him without fail. Cody related to the question while giving his partner's shell a rub, wondering if this fighting was necessary.

"And technical support, Izzy and Tentomon." Tai said, indicating the second last member of the group.

"A pleasure, I'm sure." Izzy greeted. Joey knew that the boy was protective about his gadgets, the way he collected his pineapple proved it, but he also possessed a curiosity and a set of ethics that a close friend of his had. He knew that they would get along without a problem.

"I'm Kari and this is my partner Gatomon." The girl between the google heads introduced herself and the glove wearing cat in her lap. Zoe had a feeling that the girl had a thing for Takuya, either it was that boyish charm or the slight resemblance to her brother. Koichi was drawn to the girl for some reason, but something told him it was because of her partner.

"That's Yolei and her patner, Hawkmon."

"Charmed." Hawkmon greeted, bowing.

"Nice to meet ya." Yolei added. Mimi thought the girl was perky and full of energy, ready to take on anything, the very foundation of a digi-destine. Takato was reminded of a girl in his class. All she needed was to be three years younger, a sock puppet, and that would be the perfect image.

"Cody and his partner Armadillomon."

"Hello." Cody bowed. Jamie smiled at the boy's discipline and politeness, along with a focus and serious attitude, reminding her of young apprentice mages back on Terra with the same attitude. Tommy first thought it was cool to have a boy his age in the group, but wondered if the two would even get along.

"And that's Davis and his partner Veemon." She went on, pointing out the younger kids.

"Yeah but you can call me… Davis." The younger google head made a blunder in introducing himself. Koji sighed, a new Takuya. He hoped this one would be easier to get though to, but he doubt it. Koichi on the other hand chuckled at the boy's antics. Blake knew this boy was going to be difficult, thickheaded, and there was a less then subtle attraction towards the oldest google head's sister, who was closer to the warrior of flame.

"I think we meet your sister today." TK pointed out.

"Oh yeah. So what?" Davis said, obviously sour.

"Continuing on." Blake said before the scene evolved into something brutal. "I'm Blake." Tai took a quick note of the kid, obviously leader material, and obviously seen some bad things. Koichi felt a darkness from the older boy, and something else, burning beside his heart.

"And we have Joey Parker, video game extremist and technical support to the stars."

"G'day mates." Joey waved and smiled. Takuya brightened at the introduction, maybe he's know a thing or two about donkey madness. Joe looked the boy over and noticed that he was rubbing a point of his arm where it was discolored and rubbery. He thought it was a skin problem at first.

"And Magister Jan'ti Sw'et, our resident expert in the aetherial, magical and otherwise not explained in science."

"A pleasure." Jamie said nodding. Izzy raised an eyebrow. There was no scientific proof that magic even existed, but if what he heard was true, it might exist somewhere outside the confides of their world and the digital one. Koichi was then well aware how that shield existed, the strange manor and the aura that she presented. Kari looked the girl over, noticing traits that marked her out as something other then human.

"Well, I'm Takuya, my partner is the warrior of flame, Agunimon." Takuya introduced. Tai looked at the brunet with a hint of amusement, reminded of himself in ways. Davis immediately felt threatened by the boy, but otherwise felt he could find some common ground with him.

"Zoe, and her partner Kazumon, warrior of wind."

"Ciao. Come state?" Zoe greeted. Yolei smiled at the blond girl's greeting, showing off her heritage. She wondered what kinds of foods she tried in Italy, what she grew up around. Sora wondered if she felt lonely being the only girl in the group. She thought about getting Mimi to stay longer, plan a little shopping trip around Shibuya.

"Tyke in the orange hat is Tommy, his partner is Kumamon, warrior of ice."

"Nice to meet all of you." Tommy greeted. Cody nodded, wondering how the two would get along, considering they were the same age. He did get the feeling that the young boy was bullied before but had been solved long ago. Matt was reminded of his little brother at his age, so full of energy and curiosity, he was glad that he won't be chasing after this one. He noticed that Tommy looked up to Takuya.

"And the talented JP with his warrior, Beetlemon of thunder."

"And for my first trick…" JP produced a coin from behind Tommy's ear. Jamie was entertained by the illusion, no magic trick, but she did appreciate a fellow illusionist. TK couldn't help but chuckle at the boy's antics. Obviously really good friends, but was there an underlying pang of guilt?

"The one with the bandana is Koji."

Koji just nodded. Matt knew the younger twin meant no offence, he had a feeling that his friendship with Takuya was almost like his friendship with Tai, a lot of clashed topics, some fighting, mostly with each other. Sora noticed how protective he was of his twin, like one of their digimon was about to attack them.

"And his supposed older of the yin and yang twins, Koichi."

"Hi." Koichi struck Jamie as the shy and withdrawn type who's opened up more. Matt had heard of Koichi several times before, smart, cheerful, but had withdrawn a year ago when he got into that private junior high school. TK thought it was strange now, seeing the two brothers together. Darkness and Light. Good and Evil in his mind but… there was no way Koichi was evil, was there. He made a note to read the rest of Bokomon's book, the only way he'd know for sure is that he read the whole thing for himself.

"Yin and yang?" Blake asked. "Interesting term. Both polar opposites but incomplete without each other. Like, passive and withdrawn darkness and aggressive and unrelenting light."

"You could say that. Their partners are Lobomon, warrior of light, and Loweemon, warrior of darkness." Takuya went on, the air suddenly went still. Half of the original digi-destine froze, all except for Kari, TK, Mimi and Joe. While the others knew, Kari didn't see the problem, but she could see the conflict it could cause. They turned to TK, expecting an outburst, but what surprised them was confusion.

"I thought Duskmon was the warrior of darkness." TK said which in turn made the warriors froze.

"Just how far into my book are you?" Bokomon asked.

"Half way."

"I'm going to have to spoil it for you. Duskmon is the corrupted warrior of darkness while Loweemon is the true warrior of darkness."

"That's Bokomon by the way, and the yellow rabbit sleeping is Neemon." Takuya pointed out, everyone had now noticed that the rabbit had taken the opportunity to dose off along with the Toucanmon. "Those guys stole our D-tecters and sold them in the Autumn Leaf Fair thingy. Long story. And last…" Takuya turned to the last brunet with the red dinosaur.

"I'm Takato, and this is Guimon." Takato introduced, scratching his partner behind a bat like ear.

"I don't think I've ever seen a digimon quite like him." Tai pointed out.

"Yes. I don't think I've ever seen him before." Bokomon said, going though his book once more. "He's quite docile and gentle for a virus attribute."

"Yeah, I created him." Izzy raised an eyebrow at the statement while Bokomon and the warriors had similar expressions of shock and disbelief.

"You created your digimon?" JP questioned.

"Yeah. Kinda by accident. Some drawings of him went though the digi-vice's card reader." Takato explained. "Why?"

"It doesn't surprise me that Guimon is a virus digimon now. The last time someone created a digimon, it was infected with a virus and caused a lot of havoc." Izzy informed them.

"The diablomon thing right?" Tommy said.

"Yeah. We took care of it with Omnimon before Odaiba was blown up, thankfully." Matt reminded them.

"That was you guys?" Koji asked, remembering the fight three years ago.

"Anyway, not important now." Bokomon said then added "Though I'd love to hear more about it." He turned to the twins and asked "What did you mean by Duskmon attacked you? We both know that's impossible."

"All he said was 'Doubt is a funny thing. How it can corrupt hope and twist it.' I fail to understand what he is talking about." Jamie answered. "I did sense that he was feeding off someone."

TK brought his knees closer to his chest, fully aware of what Jamie had said. Doubt. His hated for the powers of darkness and his friend's realisation to it had poisoned their friendship. Matt noticed his brother's discomfort but didn't bring it up.

"Could he have found his way into the human would like all the other digimon?"Koichi asked.

"What digimon?" Agumon asked. Koichi pulled the printouts from his bag and handed them to Tai. One of the Toucanmon stirred from his sleep just in time to see the shape of the yellow fox on the paper.

"Hey! That's the fox that attacked Dobermon!" He yelled.

"Dobermon?" Bokomon questioned.

"Yeah. Eversince he digivolved, he's been trying to find a way into the human world to get revenge on one of the warriors." Takuya didn't need hear anything more, he just knee Cerberumon was after him.

"I need to go." Takuya said to ran off but was stopped by Kari.

"Why don't we exchange numbers first. That way we can stay in contact with each other." She suggested. A sly smile appeared on Mimi's face while Davis was shocked at the forwardness of the girl.

"I'll get them from Koji tomorrow. Right now, I need to find Cerberumon before he causes any more trouble."

"Then I'll come with you." She suggested standing. "You might need backup and Tai can send me any numbers I don't have." Takuya knew there was no arguing but ran off anyway, Kari and Gatomon in tow. Davis made an attempt to follow her but TK stopped him.

"Let me go TP." Davis hissed.

"Stay." Yolei scolded, pulling the boy back down. "So where did these photo's come from?"

"A blog by the Digimon Queen." Koichi answered. "The thing is, Renamon is in all of them."

"Maybe Renamon has a human partner too." Patamon suggested.

"Well, there was this red haired girl, wearing a shirt with a broken heart." The still awake Toucanmon stated. Koji found the description familiar.

"I saw that girl only fifteen minutes ago, but there wasn't any digimon in sight." Koji told them.

"Well, she is known for blending into the shadows, I'm not surprised you didn't see her." Bokomon informed them.

"How are these digimon getting though?" Sora asked, stocking Biyomon's feathers with the back of her hand.

"If the barrier between worlds is thin enough, it wouldn't take much effort." Blake answered. "Find a soft spot, trip over something, all of a sudden, you trying wrap your head around a different structure of physics all together."

"And with this Digimon Emperor guy running around, I don't see this letting up anytime soon." JP spoke up.

"Digimon Emperor?" Koichi asked.

"Mean human who's enslaving digimon and building strange towers." Mimi answered.

"Strange towers?" Everyone but Mimi, Joe, Koji, Koichi and the digimon asked.

"Now that I think about it, he was building these obelisks all over the digital world. Control spires." Gabumon answered.

"Might have something to do with those rings." TK put forward. Blake fished out the control ring he picked up from his bag and handed it to Joey.

"That thing gives me the creeps just looking at it." Mimi shivered.

"There's a dark power coming from it." Koichi pointed out. "I don't like it. Anything that can control anyone against their will isn't a good thing to have around." TK nodded agreeing the his childhood friend.

"What about you guys?" Tai asked, turning to Blake, Jamie and Joey.

"Well, that part is rather completed." Blake said out loud. "I'm actuarially surprised to see them here." He pointed to his friends.

"Where are you guys from?" Zoe asked.

"That's the completed part love." Joey said leaning back. "Easy part, we're from Sydney, Australia. Complicated part, not your version." He leaned forward. "Lets say time is like a tree where events cause it to branch out. The easiest way to look at it is we're from another branch. Another earth that's been subjected to a different history."

Izzy was deep in thought. "So what your saying is that your from one of these parallel timelines."

"Why do these… timelines branch out?" JP asked.

"Ever had a moment where you can't decide what to have to eat when you order out?" Blake asked. "History has those moments, when two outcomes are equally probable. The best example for this is a coin. Two sides, in theory, fifty fifty, it's just as likely to come up heads as it would tails. In reality one side might be slightly heavier then the other so it's not really fifty fifty, just the closest we get to it. If it was, both outcomes would occur by history branching off. One heads, one tails and both will be subjected to their own outcomes, like in the heads timeline, you win the lottery, in the tails, different numbers are drawn and you don't."

"So what your saying is that different timelines won't likely have the same outcome despite being from the same common past." Izzy suggested. Blake nodded.

"The ones that branch off during the late cold war era are more or less the same for now. It's when you get further out that things start to get complicated." Blake continued. "There's one where the Roman Empire still exists, another where the south won the civil war in america…"

"What's your earth like?" Yolei interrupted.

"It is…" Jamie began, trying to muster up describing her new home them. She couldn't.

"I guess the best way to describe it is as something you would see in a science fiction feature, a mix between technological mega cities with contemporary lifestyle, and some hellish dangers caused by both science and magic."

"It can't be actuarial magic." Izzy pointed out.

"It is a different kind of science." Jamie defended. "Like math, find the right string of numbers and you spit the atom, code computers, unravel ancient mysteries. I focus my energy, use the right symbols, say the correct words, and I rewrite the laws of physics. The arcane arts simply obeys their own rules and at best, unpredictable."

"Besides, in some dimensions, your laptop wouldn't even function." Blake added. "Some realities have laws where energy can't be converted, just created and destroyed. The digital world is a good example of altered laws. How else could data be represented at matter and energy?"

"And the technology?" Izzy asked while one thought went though everyone's head.

"That we'll have plenty of time for later." Joey said. "Jamie and I have some local phones, should we start exchanging?"

"I think we better. It's getting late." Sora reminded them.

"Looks like we've got a lot ahead of us." JP moaned.

"At least there's a lot more of us." Tai pointed out.

"And those new digi-vices seem to help even the playing field." Izzy contiuned. "The emperor's Black Digi-vice seems to emit some signal to keep digimon from evolving and these things deliver some sort of energy from us to help them obtain their champion levels."

"What sort of energy?" Jamie asked. This sounded very familiar.

"We're not sure." Tentomon answered for his partner.

"It's weird, but Takuya thought that the powers of the legendary warriors didn't just come from their sprits." Koji said out loud. "Or the elements they represent. Something about the power coming from our hearts."

"Sounds like our crests after Apocalypsmon destroyed them." Sora pointed out.

"And one element of our ability to control mana." Jamie added, taking Blake's out of his pocket. "Only your… digi-vices act as focusing points, like crystals, wands, staffs, symbols and the list goes on."

"Don't let her bore you with the lecture." Blake insisted. "She tends to go on herself."

"What are we going to do with those guys." She pointed to the Toucanmon, Neemon and Bokomon, taking no notice of Blake's remark about her ability to teach. When she pointed, she accidentally pushed a button on the digi-vice and one of the Toucanmon was sucked in.

"Hey! I can't see anything!" The Toucanmon's voice yelled. Jamie stared at the device in shock until Blake took it out of her hand and let the Toucanmon out.

"What was it like in there?" Patamon asked the released Toucanmon.

"Surprisingly roomy."

"I'll take Neemon with me. My house isn't far from here." Tommy announced.

"My parents are in Italy for the next few days. I'll take Bokomon, and the Toucanmon until we can decide what to do with them." Zoe assured them.

"Good point. Doesn't seem safe for them with that emperor guy running around." Joe pointed out.

"And I'd like to take Bokomon with me tonight. There are a few things about sprit evolution I'd like to know about." Izzy stated.

"I'll answer all I can." Bokomon assured him. "Just as long as I don't get pulled into that device."

"Well, we should meet up tomorrow and discuss our next move." Tai continued.

"Why not here, after school?" Takato proposed. "We can send a group into the digital world to scout out the situation though the laptop and another can patrol for any rouge digimon."

"I second the motion." Jamie agreed.

"It seems logical." Izzy agreed.

"Well we can't leave them running around in the human world." Koji agreed.

"Just aslong as I get to Kendo practice in time." Cody answered.

"Same here with boxing." JP added.

"And here with band practice." Matt nodded.

"Four o'clock good for everyone?" Yolei asked. With no objects, the kids began to walk home, and digimon feeling nervous about their first time inside digi-vices.

"Bokomon." Koji started. "What did you mean the chance to refuse?"

Izzy looked at the little white scholar digimon with sympathetic eyes. Takuya, Zoe, JP and Tommy had the choose to save their partners. Koichi was in danger and Koji was just aiding his brother, and both needed their partner's powers to help them.

"When your partners came to you, they didn't have a physical form anymore, and in order for them to live on now, they needed a new physical form." Bokomon explained. "Their fractal codes are now fused with your… what was it? Genetics?" He directed the question to Izzy.

"What your trying to say now is that…" Koji got most of what Bokomon was saying. "Half digimon. Both of us." It wasn't so hard to accept for either of them really. Fighting as their warriors, using their power, strength, and skills… "What would have happened if we did refuse?"

"Outside the spheres, they wouldn't last long. Inside, six weeks in the human world, maybe more in the digital world." Bokomon finished.

"And…"

"Yes."

Koji nodded resolute as the group got to the train station. Even if he had the chance, he wouldn't refuse.

"See ya Shinya!"

"Bye!" The boy called out as he left the basketball court, ball under arm. The ten year old wasn't concerned with a lot. Just reminding himself that it was his birthday next week. He wondered what his parents had bought him for the occasion. Last year he wanted a forklift. Didn't get it but he did get a toy car set and a few great digimon cards. Takuya left the house for a few hours and came back…

The ten year old stopped suddenly, now deep in thought. His older brother, coming back from his two hour absence, seemed different. He had yet to apply the older and wiser part to the equation, but he knew they were fighting less, and Takuya had new friends. Not from school either, when he talked to Tommy, the boy his age when they came around, he came from Shinjuku. He heard Zoe came from Shibuya, JP from A Koji further south and Koichi lived in Minato. He pressed Tommy for more details on how they meet but he remained tight lipped.

Now that he thought about it… Shinya knew Takuya was hiding something.

He was broke out of his thoughts when he heard growling. Shinya's heart didn't miss a beat as he figured it was a dog behind him. But something else surprised him.

"Your brother's Takuya, isn't it!"

Shinya turned to see a familiar sight. He knew what it was from the fact that it was his favourite card. Cerberumon. Shinya wasn't sure wether to be surprised, amazed or afraid that a digimon was standing in the dark, residential street. Not knowing what else to do, he screamed.

* * *

The train arrived in Jiyugoka Station, Takuya disembarked the train, quickly glancing at the clock to see how late it was. He silently cursed to himself, wondering if his parents would notice it was a school night. Business had already shut down for the day as the chill of an April night moved over the city. He felt something twitch in his bag. Obviously Neemon string in his sleep. It amazed Takuya just how much the rabbit could sleep though.

Walking though the town, he had a sense of deja uv of when he came back from the digital world. Not as a digimon. He shivered, not wanting to go though that again. The look of fear on Miska's face was more then enough to send a ping of pain though his chest. And hearing about the 'strange beast kid' the day after just made it worse.

He hoped that they wouldn't see him like that again as he walked towards home.

Suddenly he heard a familiar scream… and a familiar voice.

"Emerald Blaze!"

"Shinya."

* * *

Shinya backed up against the wall on his hands and feet, eyes not leaving the hell hound that stalked up to him, stide stinging from where the green flames got him. He opened his mouth, a green light in his throat began to charge. If an orange blur hadn't intercepted him, he would have been burnt to a crisp then and there. Shinya was deposited behind the brick fence of one of the tersest houses and their small front yard.

"What?!"

"Lightning Paw!"

Cerberumon felt something hit his muzzle. A white cat digimon rolled across the ground, turned and ran back towards the dog to attack again. He battered the annoying cat out of they way.

"Gatomon!" He heard a human yell.

"Stay out of my way." Cerberumon warned the feline, before beginning the search for the warrior's brother, only to find said warrior standing behind him.

"Pyro Tornato!"

Agunimon span quickly, creating a tornado of fire, then appearing in front of Cerberumon, with his foot in his abdomen. Shinya peeked over the stone wall and saw his saviour had kicked Cerberumon and he began to fade into a black slit slit slithouse of himself, a ring of fractal code surrounding him. In that moment, Kari's digi-vice shifted and changed into the new model, white body with pink grips. She aimed the inferred scanner at the code and Cerberumon began to fade away as the code was absorbed into the device. A small white egg landed on the load in front of her.

Takuya was wrapped in fractal code and his Agunimon form disappeared, leaving the young boy on the road. Shinya gasped at the sight of he digimon turning into his brother.

"You okay?" Kari asked the boy, noticing the blood dripping from his side where Cerberumon's blades hit him. "We better get you patched up."

"I'm fine." Takuya protested, searching in his pocket for something to clean up the blood with. In all honesty, he wasn't in so much pain anymore. He found some else in his pocket however.

"My tail ring?!" Gatomon exclaimed, picking up the golden ring. "You found it!"

"Ugh." Takuya stammered at a loss for words.

"You found Gatomon tail ring?" Kari asked.

"Yeah… I guess so." Takuya finally concluded, not sure how it ended up in his pocket. Kari chuckled and kissed the brunette on the cheek. The boy suddenly tensed up at the unexpected action.

"Thank you." She whispered in his ear before she left towards the train station, taking the egg with her, leaving Takuya in the middle of the road, feeling like the luckiest kid alive.

From the shadows of a near by tree, a green eyed digimon peered over the branch, watching two figures part, finding both of them oddly familiar, yet strangers in the timid Flamemon eyes.

* * *

Yukata opened the door, after spending hours in Minato looking for Tommy, he was surprised to find him, along with his parents on the couch watching a sunday night movie. What he found strange was that Tommy had a stuffed animal next to him, a yellow rabbit that was as tall as he was.

"You were out late dear." Their mom said. "Where were you?"

"I was… Where did that toy come from?" Yukata immediately asked.

"Zoe gave it to me." Tommy explained. "It was a souvenir from her trip to Kyoto." Yutaka frowned at the name, and he swore it was moving. Why would those guys give Tommy such a creepy toy?

Tommy's phone gave of a chime as it received a text message from JP asking about Takato, and mentioning that they would be meaning at the Shimbashi station tomorrow after school. He told JP that he would take care of it.

"Is that JP again?" Yukata asked.

"Just making plans." Tommy said hiding the phone behind his back.

"Yeah right." Yukata scuffed, walking away. He sent JP a heads up that his brother might make an unwanted appearance tomorrow.

* * *

"Interesting." Bokomon observed as he read up on the history of the human world, venturing into the ancient realms of myths and legends, and though empires and kingdoms. Izzy had been kind enough to let him stay while Tommy took Neemon in, as long as he acted like a stuffed toy, everything would be fine. Not the hardest thing in the world to do, his head is stuffed anyway. He had recently sampled human cuisine while engaging in human customs with the Izumi family and Tentomon. But the digital world and the changes it's undergone were a difficult thing for him to process. He hoped that it wouldn't be too much to take in.

"These new digi-vices have some brilliant functions." Izzy observed. Bokomon could hear him muttering to himself. "Intercom, playing card reader, inferred scanner, mapping and radar functions… I wonder, why did a digital gate open on the computer at the Junior High school?"

"Maybe going back there would be a good start to finding out." Tentomon observed.

"Tomorrow morning."

* * *

"And where have you been young lady?" Yuuku Kamiya scolded her youngest. Kari had just entered the house with Takuya's duffle bag, with Cerberumon's digiegg inside.

"A friend's pl…" Kari began only to hear a loud bang.

"Tai!" Agumon's voice yelled. Mother and daughter ran into the shared bedroom. Yuku gasped when two familiar figures. Twin feelings of dread and joy overcame her. She remembered these creatures. No. That was suppose to be over.

"Since when did we get a skateboard?" Tai moaned as he picked himself up and noticed his mom staring at Agumon and Gatomon, the later had climbed up the side of the apartment building. "You remember Agumon right mom."

"It's… yeah… but…"

"And Gatomon." Kari added.

"This isn't going to end up like the fog incident four years ago? Right?" Their mother asked, shaking with fear that what might come of this.

* * *

"Hey Matt, what are you doing home so late?" Hiroaki Ishida asked as his son walked though the door.

"I could ask you what your doing home so early." Matt said as Gabumon followed him in.

"Can't stay, I need to get to Setagaya. Sorry I can't stay to catch up with either of you." Hiroaki said noticing the fur coat wearing reptile. "Though now I'm not so sure if people in Jiyugaoka were suffering from hallucinations. Now I know why you were so late."

"What are you talking about dad? I was at Joe's since he wasn't with us to find Gomamon."

"You don't know about a large three headed dog breathing green flames and attacking a kid on a suburban street?" Gabumon raised an eyebrow.

"That sounds like Cerberumon." Gabumon stated. "You wouldn't happen to know the name of the kid that was attacked?"

"Shinya Kanbara?" Both digimon and human looked at each other with nervous expressions.

* * *

"Just hold still Shinya sweety." The nurse asked the boy as she prepared to wrap the burn. "This will only sting a little." She sprayed an artificial skin graph over his burn.

Takuya sat by his mother's side. His wounds were already tended to, and he tried to pass it off as someone trying to stab him while they were putting a lighter to Shinya. It was better then a giant three headed dog that breathed green fire. Yuriko couldn't help but notice sincerity in the eyes of her youngest son, despite how unbelievable the story sounded, and her oldest passing it off as a young boy's imagination.

"There. Bandages should be changed daily. I'll get the release paperwork." The nurse told Yuiko and left the room. Takuya looked at the bandages over and felt a pang of guilt and regret. From Shinya's ramblings, he colluded that Cerberumon came here looking for revenge, thinking that he was weak without Agunimon's power and went after him, finding Shinya instead.

All evening, Agunimon's voice reminded him that it wasn't his fault.

'I know.' Takuya replied mentally. 'But why did Shinya get involved in this?'

'It isn't your fault Takuya, Cerberumon chose to go after your brother, as you chose to protect Bokomon and Neemon.'

'I should be keeping him safe.'

'He is safe. You stopped Cerbeumon from doing further harm."

Meanwhile, Shinya looked kept thinking about what happened in the street. The digimon turned into his brother. Was the digimon pretending to be his brother? What did it do to his brother? Did it save him from the other digimon to gain his trust? And who was that girl? His tamer? It made sense now. Takuya was acting strange for the past year, since his eighth birthday. This was it.

He had to prove to his parents he was telling the truth. And that isn't Takuya.

* * *

Japanese Fact: Hanami - Literally meaning flower viewing, it's a traditional custom that was once limited to the elite of the Imperial Court and is many centuries old. Today, many japanese people would hold a party under the cherry blossom, or sakura tree. The weather bureau announces a cherry blossom front so parties can be planed around those dates since cherry blossoms last for a week or two.

Terran Fact: Sun Elves - One of the oldest surviving races of the dimension of Eternity, they are a proud people who held sixty three of Eternity's two hundred thirty nine empires over it's billion year history. They are credited as the founding race of modern spell craft and the seven element system of the arcane arts, now used in the Commonwealth. Their culture reflects Ancient Greek closely, their warriors were believed to be revered as gods.


	5. School Days in Tokyo

**Chapter four: School Days in Tokyo**

Jamie Sweet had been up for seven hours already. Her morning routine, between meditating for an hour, arcane practice on the roof of the hotel the trio was staying in, a continental breakfast, and a few hours on her collage's archive site looking up a few points of curiosity. She thought about a few things that the children had said last night. Nothing worth reporting or writing down in her digital notebook, she figured she needed more exposure to this digital plain and it's inhabitants before delving into her studies again. She walked into the boy's room, Joey had left to explore the city a little while Blake had fallen to sleep in front of his laptop, readings from where Koji said the girl was, and it been interesting her student for some time now, and frustrating him. On the laptop's desktop, there were two photos, one of Blake, his sister Roxanne, Nephew Simon, godmother Sarah, and godfather Ivan. The other was of eight teenagers of various species, including Jamie, Joey and Blake, along with Koraian, Zane, Charlotte, Clair and Glenn. She remembered seeing a side of Blake that day she would never forget. Speaking of the boy in question, she nudged the boy.

"Just leave the vegemite toast on the table Jeeves." Blake moaned. Jamie sighed.

"Yeast extract on toasted bread is the least of your concerns Blake." Jamie told the boy as he began to arrive in the waking world. She was aware that the boy's half fae nature halved the actual amount of sleep he needed, but she wasn't sure just how long he was awake to begin with. Thirty hours was he best guess. At this point, coffee would be best. "Have you slept since we checked in?"

"Nope. Other then the thirty minute power nap. I'm missing something here. Radiation levels, molecular cohesion, physical constant change… some have red flags, some are normal. In cases of diminutional overlap, the election mass would be twice that, and a spike in low level gamma radiation."

"This is not another physical universe being breached into another. This universe is digital…"

"So we need to look for variables that relate to the digital side of things." Blake was about to start typing when Jamie pulled the laptop out from under his fingertips.

"Parker will look for those variables. You have done enough." She insisted walking off. "Go. I am certain you will not let this day go to waste. And that hover board of yours needs a spin." Jamie couldn't help but get the idea that something was on the boy's mind. She couldn't just ask him, he was stubborn when it came to his own problems. On the desk, next to the laptop was a sphere, floating an inch off the desk. Jamie shivered looking at the golden, floating sphere, first laying eyes on the device and what it did to her.

"Endless wonder. Infinite Horror." Jamie muttered. "What horror will come with this wonder?

She suddenly remembered the control ring, and the symbols on it that she saw on it when the light was hitting it at a particular angle. The symbols my have been alien to her, but their purpose wasn't.

* * *

The school day at Odabia high hadn't progressed all that smoothly for Tai. For starters, his mom would have a panic attack every time someone would turn up unannounced, including their father who had forgotten his keys and came home late, then Izzy in the morning before he went to school. Jun had tried to ambush Matt outside the school in standard fangirl style obsession only to end up tripping over Tai instead, causing gossip to spread that a new couple had started. As if algebra wasn't enough of a problem. The walked up to his locker, hoping his mom packed something normal instead of her standard health food experiment, alias fate had something else in store for the soccer loving digi-destine when he opened his locker, and the smell of homemade bread lofted out of the steel storage container. There was a plastic lunchbox, with a note attached. Confused, Tai read the note.

'I don't suppose you believe in love at first sight. Enjoy, we will meet soon.'

It was unsigned, but Tai knew it wasn't from Sora, no offence to her cooking but she can't. Tai looked inside and found the contents, a pasta dish with garlic bread were prepared lovingly and enough for two. For a moment, Tai tried to think who it was from but failed.

"That smells good." A voice from behind him observed. Tai's skeleton nearly jumped from his mouth as he slammed the locker closed. He turned to find Izzy standing behind him. "I'm guessing you weren't expecting it."

"What's up Izzy?" Tai sighed.

"I found out that the digital gate on the computer is still open. But it was activated on that computer only. I encrypted it so no one would stumble into the digital world accidentally." Izzy assured him.

"That might not stop them." Tai mused.

"What to you mean?"

"If digimon can come to our world, do you think humans could accidentally stumble into theirs by just going about their everyday lives." That was a worrying thought for both digi-destine. "How did your laptop get into the park anyway?"

"Don't know. Who ever took it guessed my password and opened a digital gate on it. How it managed to get into Joey's hands is a mystery. I wonder if it has anything to do with the gate opening in the computer room. Something is really weird is going on around here… "

"Besides the other weird things that's going on around here?"

"Good point. Changing the topic…" Izzy produced the laptop from his bag and opened it.

"So they're not just appearing in Tokyo." Tai moaned.

"Not unless Agumon decided to take a day trip to Yokohama." Izzy added. "I've already got a train route planed out. We'll take the Yamanote line to Shibuya and the Limited Express Tokyu Toyoko Line all the way to the end."

"Don't tell me you've already bought train tickets."

"Okay. I won't."

* * *

"Cerberumon attacked Shinya? Is the kid okay?" Koji asked his brunette classmate. Too this day, neither Takuya nor Koji could explain how each of them didn't meet until that day they went to the digital world when they went to the same school. In their defence, they had different classes, different after school activities, Koji was anti social at the time and they lived in different neighbourhoods. Takuya was always covering for Koji when he was staying at his mom's, and all Takuya needed to do was come over, get slobbered on by the hyperactive house pet, study for a few hours and on the odd occasion, endure the family dinner. It also made catching up with the google head easy, knowing he wouldn't miss soccer practice for anything.

"First and second degree burns. They said he'll be fine after a few weeks." Takuya explained. "But why did he go after Shinya when I was right there in the park."

"Beats me." Koji shrugged, keeping cool but deep inside, he was relieved to hear that Shinya was okay. Little guy could be a bother for as long as Koji knew him, but he didn't want to think about what his death would do to the tight nit Kanbara family. Hell, nearly losing Koichi after they found each other made Koji very protective of his older twin, and their mother. The idea that they were only just getting by in their small apartment in Tamachi was a worrying one. He shock the unpleasant thought from his head before pressing on. "Did your parents find out about Agunimon?"

"No." Takuya said confused. "Why?"

"I ran into Michi and Nakamaura Sensei earlier." Koji explained. "They thought they heard your mom yelling. Very loudly from what I heard."

"Your not going to believe this but after breakfast, Shinya dumped a bucket of ice cold water over my head." Takuya said sheepishly.

"What?!" Koji exclaimed.

"Mom dug into him and I needed a change of clothes. It's weird, the way he kept staring at me. Man, if looks could kill…"

"Do you think he saw you change back?"

"I don't think so but he's crazy about the card game. I'd be more worried about people thinking he's crazy then they tell them his older brother is a digimon." Takuya chuckled. "Mom barely believed a big black dog breathing green fire."

"Good point. Just tread carefully around him. Yukata is already following us, I don't need Shinya atop of that and everything else." Takuya chuckled.

* * *

"I'm telling you, I saw this thing. We've got to call out the national guard! The Army! The Navy! The Air force! The Marines!" Seiji Kurosawa exclaimed to the disbelieving staff.

"A talking dinosaur?" Masafumi Iwamoto questioned, not willing to admit that it might be true after seeing the collection of claw marks on his classroom door. Tommy heard the commotion from his classroom, his teacher trying to figure out what caused the fire alarm to go off and found the principal cowering behind a cardboard box.

"I think the principal has finally gone crazy." Suki whispered to Kirsty.

"Well, my big brother always suspected that school was bad for your health." Kirsty whispered back. Tommy thanked Kumamon's enhanced hearing didn't make him deaf in this crowd, but he did pick up whispering.

"How many times do I have to tell you Terriormon. You've got to say hidden. Now come on."

"Oh I never get to have any fun."

Tommy turned just in time to see a dog eared rabbit disappear into the crowd of legs. He was about to follow when he heard frantic footsteps. It was Takato. He ran past Tommy, towards the scene that had unraveled in the middle of the hall…

And stopped suddenly, turned around and ran towards the stairs. Tommy noticed that he caught the attention of a blue haired, half chinese boy with grey eyes. He really didn't notice what came of that as he was already running after Takato.

"Takato!" Tommy called after him. "Takato!" He caught the ten year old's wrist, the brunet panting after his run. "You okay? What's wrong?"

"Guilmon!" He huffed between breaths. "He must… have followed… me to… school."

Tommy nodded then heard one of the lunch ladies demand "Where's all the food? Do you have any idea how long it took to make the meat loaf all dry and crusty?"

"And my watery spaghetti sauce is all gone."

"The chocolate cake! Think of the chocolate cake!"

"It's Guilmon alright." Tommy muttered. "No human would ever eat that stuff willingly."

"Why did he have to come to school?" Takato asked no one. "Everyboy's gonna find out about him and he's going to be taken away from me for sure."

"Don't say that Takato." Tommy reassured him. "We'll find Guilmon."

"Gulimon?" Their attention was diverted to the boy from earlier, the blue haired chinese boy, arms cross by the door. "You said Guilmon. Well didn't you? He's a digimon right."

Takato looked at the boy in confusion while Tommy ran though excuses.

"Are they digimon tamers too?"

The dog eared rabbit came up behind the boy's legs.

"A Terriormon?" Takato gaspped. "And he talked. I don't believe it."

"How?" Tommy asked. The digital rabbit just chuckled and pointed a finger upwards.

"You two can't be very good digimon tamers if neither of you can keep track of just one digimon." The statement hit Takato hard, Tommy could see the tears welling up in the corner of the brunet's eyes.

"Terrormon!" The boy scolded.

"What?! What?! It's not my fault if they stink at it right! Right!" The digimon jumped around as if to prove a point.

"Leave him alone. It's not like he's done this before." Tommy defended.

"He's right." Tommy heard Takato sob. "He's right!" He ran, in no particular direction, sting of thoughts running though his head.

"Someone should really teach you the meaning of the word tact." Tommy pointed out to the rabbit.

"I am trying." The boy moaned.

* * *

The twin sonic thrusters of the hover-board hummed as it propelled the board and it's rider though the city. He considered it the only way to fly when you didn't have wings. A magic carpet was a close alternative, depending the amount of threads. Flying between the towers of the Government Building, he adjusted course towards the school. He found it easily, despite the absence of flame and smoke bellowing from the windows. Though the red dinosaur on the roof helped.

Blake made the silent landing on the roof and spent a few moments scratching Guilmon behind the ears.

"The trouble you get into." Blake whispered. "Takato is going to have his hands full."

"Where is Takatomon?" Guilmon asked, curled up by his side.

"Three… two… one…" Blake counted back. The door to the rooftop bust open, surprising the digital dinosaur. Surprise turned to pure joy.

"Takatomon! Takatomon!" Guilmon ran up to his tamer and jumped on top of him, nuzzling him.

"Guilmon." Takato took he digimon into a hug once he was able to. The dinosaur didn't know much about humans, or anything about the world he was in but he was sure that his tamer was in some emotional distress. And his eyes were leaking.

"I hate to brake up this happy reunion but, explain to me why you brought your digital dinosaur to sch… or did he follow you here?" Blake asked before chuckling. "This is going to be interesting. How about I take Guilmon to the park, keep him out of trouble there. Or as much trouble as chasing squirrels can get you in. You head back to class. Guilmon, come with Blakemon. Takatomon can't play right now."

"You do know your just encouraging him." Takato pointed out as Guilmon sniffed the hover board, placing a reluctant foot on the jet propelled craft.

"I know." Blake stepped on behind the dinosaur, and the board took off, Guilmon letting out a loud yelp, calling attention to the flying dinosaur by the school principle.

"You saw it too! It was flying!"

"Okay, I've heard about enough."

* * *

Koichi looked up at the result board, expecting Ken to be in the lead… turned out that in last week's math exam, Koichi was on top, Ken only got a ninety nine. Koichi smiled inwardly to himself. It would put Ichijiouji in his place for a while. Guy was a genius sure, but he wasn't humble about it. He wondered if Takuya had played against him in soccer. He's noticed that now merging with Loweemon completely had more perks then when they were stored in his D-Tecter. At first it was improved senses and stamina, then it's Loweemon's voice in his head, Takuya already told him that they didn't need to sprit evolve by using their digi-vice but the wounds they pick up in their digimon form passes on to their human form.

"There he is." He heard one student whisper.

"Wow. Look at that vain on his forehead." Another said.

"Your Koichi right." Koichi turned to see the boy himself, the boy with dark blue hair and eyes, one could mistake them both for a shade of purple. He offered a hand. "Congratulations on the prefect score."

"Uh… Thank you." Koichi said, more focused on something else, a darkness that radiated from the boy. "Wasn't like it was a contest."

'Koichi' Loweemon whispered. 'Move away from him now.'

"I need to go." Koichi said suddenly walking away more coldly then he would like. He needed to get home, get out of the school uniform and catch the next train to Shinjuku.

* * *

No one looked at Jamie twice when she walked into the Odaiba school grounds. Her illusion spell made it so no one looked for too long in her direction until she reached the computer room, finding the five digimon on the ground, binging in junk food, and their partners standing over them chuckling over something she missed. She wondered if it had anything to do with the stone sculptors that were scattered around the room.

"Hey!" Yolei called out.

"Afternoon." Jamie nodded. "I apologise for the intrusion."

"Don't worry about it." Daivs assured her. " We were just waiting on Cody."

"When I checked with the elementary building, he was playing with his last cherry tomato." TK added. "What's up?"

From her handbag, Jamie produced the control ring, causing gasps to come from the digimon. "I require an escort into the digital world. I believe additional intelligence can be found there concerning the mechanics of this disgusting thing."

"Sure. One of us can open the gate and take you though." Kari assured her.

"Why don't we all go?" Davis asked.

"Because one of us needs to tell Izzy to open the gate on his laptop if we want to get to the meeting in time." Yolei pointed out as the door opened and Cody walked in. "What do you need?"

"Matter-Data scan for Parker and an experiment with one of the previously mentioned spire things and this control ring. The ring itself can find us one."

"I'll go to Shinjuku with the others, make sure the portal's open in the park." Yolei volunteered.

"Alright then." Davis took out his digi-vice, aimed it at the screen, and he, Veemon and Jamie were pulled into the digital plain.

* * *

"Sir. I've got some network spikes." The red haired operator pointed out.

"Early for the clock work four o'clock network spike." The man with the lighter pointed out.

"Should I stop the tracer?"

"No. Lets wait and see if old faithful still spikes."

* * *

"There." Cody pointed out a tall spire standing over a sea side village from it's mountain top perch. Jamie viewed the thing with a look of digest. Just looking at it made her blood boil. At the village gates, there were a pair go Gazimon with black rings around their necks.

"Lets go." Davis called out rushing towards the village…

"Hold! Rushing in there without a strategy is at best suicidal." Jamie told the google head.

"No problem. All we need to do is armour digi-volve and blast away." Davis assured her.

"Davis. I am beginning to question the existence of your brain." Jamie huffed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We are dealing with an individual who is both cunning and sadistic."

"Meaning?" Davis said scratching his head, the limits of his vocabulary being tested.

"Meaning we have the element of surprise. A good strategist doesn't give up that element without getting the advantage on his opponents." Jamie kept herself from screaming.

"The emperor could be using innocent digimon as hostages." TK reminded him.

"Or worse, fighters." Cody added.

"And our focus is to buy enough time to…" Jamie stopped. She snapped her fingers. "Davis. I am going to ask you to do something that is likely to be impossible." She fished the control ring from her bag.

"Yeah."

"Shut up and run."

None of the Gazimon expected it, but when it happened, it felt like they were being stimulated and sedated over and over again, the feeling of their free will being forced back into place before the control rings took over again. They were so disorientated, they didn't notice the group of humans and digimon, lead by a blue cloaked elf, ran right into the city. They certainly didn't notice the glowing white ring with blue digi-code.

* * *

Mimi let out a soft sigh and held the cold water bottle to her head. Did she complain this much in the digital world? She was aware that she was high maintenance, but Rumiko Nonaka had to be worse, wanted everything her way, right down to the 'plant' in the corner. The moment she heard it needed trimming, she ushered Palmon out of there.

Thankfully, she didn't need to put up with Rumiko's moaning much longer. Once she was done, she left for the park and found Palmon, with Blake and a sleeping Guilmon

"…isn't much different from Tokyo, though theres more influence of western cultures." The boy told Palmon. "And there's this giant park in the middle of Manhattan. Get Mimi to take you there some time. You'll love it."

"I'm sure. So why do they call it the Big Apple?" Palmon asked.

"I imagine it would have something to do with apple pie. They do love their apple pies over there, and guns. I have never meet a human american that hasn't had an itchy trigger finger."

"Hey Mimi!" Palmon called out to the pink haired, cowboy hat wearing girl.

"Hey." Mimi pointed to the digital dinosaur. "What's with…"

"He's kinda resting off a school trip. Followed his partner to school and caused a little havoc to the principals mental state." Blake answered, scratching the sleeping dinosaur behind the ears. "And while chasing our acorn hoarding friends, he tripped over Palmon, out picking flowers. Napping ever since." Mimi chuckled at the story.

"He is kinda cute." Mimi pointed out.

"And heavy." Palmon added.

"You didn't have to try an lift him." Blake reminded her. "I am never stepping on any flowers in the near future." Blake checked his watch. "Should be any minute…"

"Guilmon!" They heard a boy call out. Mimi saw a google waring Takato running toward the four, with Tommy and two boys his age, the taller of the four was a light brown haired boy, the other, shorter had darker brown and glasses.

"So this is the digimon that saved us from the dreaded cafeteria food?" One of the boys asked.

"He may have saved our lives." The taller pointed out. "It's only a matter of time before they kill someone with their cooking."

"Sorry?" Blake called out, as Takato stirred Guilmon from his sleep by rubbing the bridge of his muzzle. "Me very confused here. Who are they?"

"Tommy's former bullies." Takato pointed out.

"You told them?" Blake turned to Tommy. "What did they do? Threaten to melt you?"

"They heard the principal raving about a dinosaur, they connected the dots since they've been to the digital world before, but they were never chosen by the sprits."

"Names?"

"Katsuharu and Teppi." Tommy said.

"Come on Guilmon." Takato said walking towards a field.

"Are we going to chase squalls Takatomon?" Guilmon asked as the assembled humans and digimon followed.

"No. We need to find a place to stay where you wont cause any trouble."

"Aww. I wanted to see if we could drive the principal insane by the end of the term." Katsuharu moaned as Guilmon started growling. "We'll have to get Tommy to make it snow."

"Sorry guys. Not without a good…" Tommy was interrupted by a loud crash. Guilmon was kicked into the dirt.

"What was that?" Blake demanded, looking around to find the attacker, a humanoid yellow and white fox knelling in the tree.

"What a lousy fighter." A red haired girl moaned, catching the attention of all the kids in the area. "But a fights a fight."

Takato made a revelation, looking at the girl's lilac eyes. This was the girl from his dreams.

"What's the big idea?!" Mimi yelled, noting that neither the girl nor digimon had noticed Palmon.

"That was your digimon eating dirt." The girl said stepping forward.

"Not the question she was asking." Blake said. "She meant why did you attack him for no good reason." Behind his back, Mimi noted that he was tracing a finger over the touchscreen display of his watch.

"What do you think digimon were made for?" The girl demanded.

"For goodness sake, let's just get this over with." The fox demanded, leaping up in the air and crossing her arms. "Diamond Storm!" Crystals formed around her and hailed down towards Guilmon. A board of smooth metal appeared over Guilmon, any crystals directed at him smashed into the hover board, some bouncing off and hitting the digimon annoyingly.

"What!"

"Guilmon! Runaway!" Takato ordered, but the dino digimon had other ideas on his mind. Renamon landed in the tree as the hover board moved away.

"Pyro sphere." Renamon leapt out of the way in time for the sphere of red plasma to miss her. She leapt at Guilmon and tackled him while the girl had a holographic display up on her digi-vice.

"I know her." Mimi pointed out. "That's Rika Nonaka, I was in a photo shoot with her mom." The only reason she recognised her was because Rumiko had the decency to talk a second to show off her lovely daughter and moan about how she can't get her to ware a dress anymore.

While Guilmon and Renamon struggled, Tommy took the moment to consider that both tamer and digimon were distracted. He dashed behind a tree to sprit evolve, fractal code covering him and he emerged at the human warrior of ice, Kumamon.

Palmon knew she couldn't stand by and watch this. She joined the battle and wrapped Renamon in her poison ivy. Tommy aimed Kumamon's blaster at the fox and gave her the snow pummelling of her digital life. Guilmon refused to let up, tacking the fox and pinning her to the ground.

"Three of them?!" Rika questioned. She smiled. "More data for Renamon then." She drew a card from her pouch. "This will do." She placed it in the card reader…

Tommy aimed the gun on the girl and fired, a snow ball hitting her hand and knocking the device out of her hand…

Rika remembered when Cerberumon was breathing down her neck… She froze…

"Stop it!" They heard a voice call out. Takato, Mimi, Tommy, Katsuharu, Teppi, Rika, Palmon, Guillmon and Renamon turned to the blue haired boy that stood atop the hill, with his dog eared digital bunny.

"You heard him. Cease and desist at once." Blake agreed.

"It's you." Takato whispered.

"It's me. It's him. Aren't you happy to see us?" Terrormon asked as he ran up to the digimon.

"A digimon?" Rika questioned.

"What? You don't want to make your pet here kick him around like a floppy eared rugby ball. No. I know, gut him and serve him up for the divine cruelty that it you. All will knell before Rika, or face punishment from the great fox guardian." Blake went on.

"You looked like you were doing well, holding your own against all those digimon." Terrormon complemented Renamon only to add "But didn't you feel silly rolling around in the dirt like that?" This did make the fox feel slightly insulted.

"It's not wise to mouth off to someone bigger then you." The boy noted.

"Henry. Momenti."

"He's not the one with a problem." Blake pointed out. "What I want to know is why foxy here decided to attack our friend here. And there better be a good reason. Because I am seriously trying to keep myself from skinning both of you alive." She nodded to Rika to make a point.

Rika sighed, letting the threat fall on death ears. "It's what digimon do, they fight, and when they win, they get stronger."

"Do you agree to any of this?" Blake asked Renamon. She just remained silent. "How many digimon have you killed in your quest for strength? You haven't counted. Have you."

"What's the point. They're just data. Nothing more. Nothing less."

"WHAT!?" Tommy froze hearing her. Zoe.

* * *

Yukata ran into his room quickly to change out of his school uniform and into something that might blend in. Afterwoods he stopped outside of Tommy's room. The door was open. He heard snoring. He pushed the door open, immediately, he found the yellow rabbit doll lying on the bed. He reached out to it…

The door slammed closed, waking the rabbit, jack knifing up into Yukata's hand. Both let out cries of shock.

"Yukata!?" His mom came running up stairs. "What happened?"

Neemon stayed still, reminded of what Tommy said. Remain still when someone other then him is around.

"Yukata! What are you doing in your brother's room?" Rieko Himi demanded. She got no response. "I'm getting tired of this young man." She dragged the still frozen Yukata out of the room and closed the door behind them. Neemon let out a sigh and fell back to sleep.

* * *

Jamie raised a hand as they stopped behind a building, just at the base of the hill, just by the path to it's summit. TK directed Patamon to scout ahead for anymore guards. Jamie checked her seals on the ring as the digi-destine caught their breath, and digimon went on high alert. Once Kari's breathing stopped, a thought crossed her mind and worried her.

"What you did to that ring isn't hurting the digimon is it?" She asked.

"I hope not." Jamie answered, fearing the same. She could tell her words didn't comfort the youngest Kamiya sibling. "That is way we are running. So if it does cause them pain, we do not let it cause it for more then it is required."

"And right now?" Gatomon asked.

"The ring is not active now. It confirmed some of my theories but we need that control spire." Jamie answered. She watched Davis pull out his digi-vice and his digi-metal of courage card. "Daisuke. There will be a time to fight, but at this moment, going all out will only get your partners hurt and innocent digimon killed. If Taichi were here, I believe he would tell you the same." Patamon came flying back and landed on TK's head.

"The coast is clear." He cheered.

"Cody and Armadillomon will stay at the rear. Daisuke and Veemon will remain in the lead with me. The ring will now keep us hidden from anyone wearing one, but the closer to the spire we are, the less influence it has. Be ready for a fight. Understood?" Everyone agreed, and off they went.

* * *

Everyone turned to see that four of the legendary warrior hosts were standing onto of the hill with similar faces of contept for the red head girl. Zoe looked down right furious. Tommy had seen the expression on Zoe's face several times before with an ill spoken word from Takuya, a brush off from Koji or even when someone threatened her friends, but this magnitude was reserved only for the most despised of occasions. The boys were lucky not to see this face directed at them, but even they knew better then to call digimon just data. He felt sorry for the girl now that she was about to endure the full and uncontrolled wrath of the warrior of wind.

"Just data." Zoe repeated as she began to close the gap between them. "What the hell do you mean 'Just Data'? Just how the hell did you become a digi-destine with that attitude? Just who do you think you are attacking Guilmon like that with your pit bull over there? Just why would you go attacking someone out of the blue like that?"

"Which one do you want me to answer first?" Rika asked, unfazed and with a board expression. "Liston. I'll go slow for you blondie. Digimon are only made to fight. They fight each other and when they win they absorb their opponent's data and they digi-volve." Her explanation only served to get the young girl madder. "What else are are digimon going to do?"

"Anything they want." Takuya spat.

"Yeah. They're not fighting machines." JP backed up.

"Guys! Zoe!" Koji yelled. "Leave her alone."

"What!?" Everyone yelled.

"You heard me. If she wants to go around, acting like a spoilt brat trying to get mommy's attention, who are we to get involved. Just as long as she stays out of our way." Koji elaborated.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Rika yelled at the bandana wearing boy.

"Wow. And I thought you were older then me. Turns out your just another kid throwing a temper tantrum. So much for being the Digimon Queen. Can't even make her little fox digi-volve past rookie. Look, I don't care what you do, or how you go around, trying to get yourself killed trying to prove just how much of a brat you can be, just don't drag me or my friends or my associates or anymore innocent digimon into it. We've got more important things to do then deal with an obnoxious four year old who thinks she's got something to prove. Come on guys." Koji turned around and began to walk away.

"Just wait a minute! Who the hell do you think you are?!" Rika yelled, now infuriated.

Koji stopped. "Someone who learnt the lessons you really need to learn a long time ago."

Takuya just looked at Koji in disbelief. He just scolded the girl like he scolded Takuya all those months ago, only this time, he wasn't just being hash, he basically just basically verbally abused her. No one saw what happened next coming… not even Renamon as she charged at Koji.

Koji turned just as the fox digimon's fist was inches from his face. There was a loud throaty yell and a flaming fist was planted in Renamon's muzzle. She rolled across the ground while her Tamer's eyes widened at the development. Her eyes weren't the only ones…

Takuya recognised the digimon, a long orange brown mane, tanned skin, tribal marks on his face and chest. Flamemon.

"Where did he come from. Nevermind. Just more data for Renamon." Rika smiled as her digimon picked herself up from the ground. Takuya watched as the Flamemon clutched his head in his hands. Renamon kept in to the air, crossed her arms and prepared an attack.

"Dimaond…

"Pyro Punch!"

A second fist ran into Renamon's muzzle and sent her into the ground. This time, it was Agunimon's gauntlet, on Takuya's arm. Shock was painted over everyone's face. Rika's that a human would even be able to hit a digimon with such force, Renamon's that a human would have a digimon's attack, the legendary warriors that Takuya had partially turned into Agunimon's form, the only one who wasn't shock was Guilmon who was watching the whole thing with a little disinterest. He'd rather be chasing that squirrel right now.

"Great. This is going to get out of hand quickly." Rika sighed. She'd rather like to think this whole thing though right now then deal with who's what. "Renamon." Disapointed, she walked off, Renamon following behind. Both vanished without a trace once they walked behind the tree.

Takuya's hand turned back to normal and he turned to the Flamemon still behind him. Only he was gone.

* * *

"Koji? What the hell man?" Takuya asked at the group walked to the meeting spot.

"Yeah. It almost sounded like you wanted her to attack you." Mimi observed.

Koji shrugged. "Wouldn't do her any good. It's not like we're made out of data." He noticed the chinese boy with the Terriormon on his shoulder following them. "Who are you again?"

"Henry Wong." The boy introduced. "You guys know about digimon."

"Know about digimon. Turn into digimon." JP pointed out.

"Trust me. More complicated then it sounds." Blake pointed out. "What are you trying Minamoto?"

"I kinda came from the same school of life as that red head over there. If she wants to go around, getting her fox to attack digimon and absorb their data, she can go right a head. We just need to keep her from doing it." He turned to the others. "And if she wants to act like a spoilt child, we might as well treat her like one. It worked for Takuya didn't it?"

"Hey!" Almost everyone had a laugh at Takuya's expense. Blake just held back while Mimi was wrapped in her own thoughts, and Henry who didn't find the insult funny.

"That's it!" Blake yelled suddenly. Everyone stopped and turned. "That's the missing variable. Network data."

"What are you talking about?" Takato asked.

"Come on." Blake lead the group into the clearing where the older digi-destine, along with Koichi and Yolei were waiting.

"Hey!" Tai called out, then noticed the new kids. "Who are these guys?"

"Henry, Terriormon, Katsuharu and Teppi." Takato pointed out as the introductions started again, Blake found Joey, Yolei and Izzy talking amongst themselves. He approached them excitedly.

"I've been trying to figure out a way to track the appearances of digimon in the real world but they don't follow the same channels as other cross diminutional transportation. If someone can purpose a system to scan data packets, we won't just be able to get an idea where they're going to appear, but we'll get a destination minutes in advance." Blake explained. "She was right about one thing. Digimon, physically are just data. That's probably how they get into this world in the first place. I mean, this city is so packed, so dense, all those cell towers, wifi signals and broadcasting stations…"

"Hang on, so you're telling us that digimon are just coming out of these signals?" Izzy asked.

"It's possible they're using… She?" Joey asked.

"Girl we ran into on the way here. Thought Digimon were only good for fighting." Blake explained, only now noticing the laptop in Izzy's hands. "Am I missing something here?"

"Davis, Kari, TK, Cody and Jamie are in the digital world, looking for one of those control spires." Yolei explained.

"She did what?" Blake questioned

"Never mind about that. We've got more digimon appearing in Yokohama." Izzy showed Blake the photos. "These were posted to a conspiracy site today."

"Yokohama too?" Takato asked walking up to the group. The had caught the attention of everyone else, human and digimon alike.

"We'll need to investigate it now, while clues are still fresh." Tai announced.

"I planed on going but if Kari, Davis and the others are still in the digital world, someone will have to wait for them to come out." Izzy mentioned. "And it is my laptop."

"If I call my parents now, I can say I'm at a friends place." Yolei announced.

"I should be able to get away will staying out tonight." Matt pointed out. "Dad will probably think I'm practising."

"Mom's working late tonight." Koichi said. "I she won't notice I'm gone"

"Izzy. Make sure you get everything from Jamie when she comes out of the digi-Port." Blake instructed.

"You're not going anywhere without me." Takuya spoke up.

"Great. I've already got seven train tickets. Just need one more…" Izzy started.

"I'll go." Henry spoke up, taking the train tickets from Izzy.

"Great." Tai spoke up. "We'll keep in contact. Let you guys know if we find anything. One more thing Izzy." From his own bag, Tai pulled out a relatively new, orange and blue pineapple laptop. "Think you can install the digi-Port on this."

Izzy raised an eye. "Well, it might help if you need back up. Open it up. I'll try something." Tai did, and Izzy pulled out his digi-vice. "Digi-Port open."

On the computer screen flickered and the digi-port appeared on it. The screen turned clear.

"It worked." Izzy gasped, then he noticed the time. "You better hurry if you want to catch your first train."

Takuya noticed the time. "Oh man. Why does this always happen!?"

* * *

Jamie expected the walk to be a difficult one, but instead, she enjoyed it. No fights, no problems, only the moaning from Davis was getting on her nerves. She smiled to herself, the boy had a lot to learn about leadership, but some how, he reminded her of another's personality, confidence that his abilities would pull though, even with no idea of what would be behind that unopened door, though the need to apply combat to any solution isn't something she admired, and neither would the person she was remind of.

"Hold." She said suddenly. "And remain silent." They did, and she closed her eyes, focusing on little things. She couldn't scene anything on the summit, so she proceeded, becoming them to follow. On the summit was the control spire, standing tall, proud and dominating.

"Davis, Veemon, keep an eye out. If anything approaches, have Flamedramon burn it to a crisp." Jamie told them. Davis perked up at those words. "This should not take long."

Kari, TK, Patamon and Gatomon followed Jamie to the control spire. They watch her approach it carefully, not noticing her smile. She knew this would be easy.

"What?" TK asked.

"I just need a length of chalk." Jamie answered, fishing one out from her handbag, along with a square persian rug. She untied it and let it on the ground. "Other then that, time."

She got to work.


	6. Yokohama Chaos

**Chapter Five: Yokohama Chaos**

It was about an hour later when Yolei was pulled from her sleep by Koichi nudging her awake as the train pulled in to Yokohama Station. Around her, commuters and tourists alike had began to rise from their seats and made their way to the open doors while Yolei followed the warrior of darkness with Tai, Matt, Henry, Takuya and Blake assumably behind or ahead. She wondered how Hawkmon was doing stored him her little digi-vice as data.

Blake on the other hand was more concerned about the idea that something was following them since they left Shinjuku Park. It was little things like movement in the corner of his eye, leaves rustling when there was no wind, noises on the roof of the train like someone was trying to walk across it.

He was too focused on the concern that he ran into someone.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" The young man about fifteen yelled.

"Sorry." Blake apologised losing his line of thought. The boy muttered something about tourists while Blake caught up with Takuya and Tai who were gathered around a map of the city while Matt stood over them. helping the google heads to divide up the city unit seven searchable areas.

"If anyone does find this stray Agumon, Call me or Takuya and we'll get everyone together and send it back with this." Tai said as he brandished the laptop. He was glad to get some better use out of it other then research for homework and keeping in contact with Izzy and Mimi. He would have to really thank his parents again for what he thought would be a useless birthday present.

"Everyone keep an ear out for a text message when someone else does find it." Takuya added. "And don't approach it if you don't have to. It might not be aggressive, but I'd rather have everyone around before we find out it is."

"Everyone pick a spot and start searching." Matt began, pushing the map towards Henry, Koichi and Yolei. "And remember, we meet back here in two hours if we don't find anything."

Yolei picked the shopping district. Henry ran with China Town. Koichi decided the industrial district was worth a look. Matt took the business district. Tai and Takuya each took a half of the foreshore and Blake was left with the residential area.

"Blake!" He heard Koichi call out. He didn't know the boy to be so forward unless it was important. He turned to see the older of the yin and yang twins standing behind him.

"You called?" Blake asked.

"Something's just been bothering me. This kid at school, Ken Itchijouji."

"What about him?"

"Loweemon just told me to get away from him. I don't know what he felt but…"

"But you get a bad feeling from him as well. Both of you." Blake thought about this for a moment. "Interesting. What else can you tell me about him?"

"He's the resident genius and none too humble about it." Koichi answered. "In fact, Koji would say he's…"

"…A total jerk about it." Takuya finished for him. "Koji at least used a few colourful words after meeting him."

"You two wouldn't happen to know where he lives?" Blake asked the two legendary warriors. "I suddenly have this urge to meet him. And slip a lit stick of dynamite in to his school bag." He added walking away. Koichi didn't much like the sound of that last part.

* * *

"Okay my dear. Let me see what's on the next section." Jamie heard Bokomon ask over Davis' Berry, the smartphone able to connect though to Izzy's Pineapple via a videophone app. The mage moved the phone to the left, a number of digi-code coming into the laptop's screen. "Hold it there please."

Jamie watched the digimon scholar draw something on a notepad while she heard the flapping of someone's large ears.

"How long is this going to take?" Patamon asked from behind her. She smiled.

"As long as it must." Jamie answered back.

"This." Bokomon showed her a symbol that was two squares with corners overlapping, the top right over the bottom left. Jamie drew the symbol in the blank space. "And rub out the one that looks like the smily face with asterisks for eyes." She found it and rubbed it out with her hand. Slowly, the obelisk began to feel… less intimidating, like the effect it's having over the general area was shifting…

"…and when I see her, I'll teach her a lesson!" She noticed Davis was yelling. She decided to ignore it for now.

"…one with the big mouth!" TK responded. This made Jamie question what made the normally level headed boy yell

"That's enough!" She then heard Kari yell. There wasn't much yelling after that.

"Jamie?" She heard Bokomon call out.

"Next section?" She asked, wanting to get the spire converted as soon as she could manage. Something was coming, and it set the sun elf mage on edge.

* * *

About an hour in, Blake checked his disposable phone for the sixth time. Not because he had too. He had the electro-magnetic emulator in his D-Pilot link to the phone's basic bluetooth, and the wrist mounted device would send the text message to the HUD that was being projected over the visual part of his brain. He had it up anyway since he would be searching for an elusive orange reptile. If he missed it, the quantum processes wouldn't. The phone buzzed in his hand, the message displayed over his vision.

Taichi Kamiya - "We've found nothing over here? How's it going on your end?"

Blake mentaly wrote a message. "Nothing yet. I'll remain vigila…"

"Attention. A Gas leak has been detected in the area. Authorities are now attempting to remove it. Please return to your homes or seek shelter indoors." Came a voice from a near by police car. Or at least it looked like a police car. He caught the sight of a strange logo on the side, with the letters DATS on the side. He brought up the phone's web browsing feature, goggling the four letters. The first webpage that came up, lead to a site that claimed the United Nations was covering up aliens with the organisation known as DATS. He erased what he was about to send to Tai.

"I think I have something." Blake sent. The message vanished from his vision and was on it's way and Blake ran after the car. He made it to a yellow police line where a red haired young woman was talking to a police officer. He drew his smartphone and started typing madly.

Yoshi heard a loud noise. A fire alarm? It came from one of the shop fronts as people ran out soaking wet. Another fire alarm went off, and another, and another… in a few minutes, the streets were flooded with soaking wet people. The boy in the leather duster waltz past them unnoticed, hood up, gloves on.

"Yoshi!"

"Damn." Blake muttered, not sure where the voice came from, but very sure it's owner had spotted him. He didn't look over his shoulder, he just ran, not noticing the number of young men who were on the ground of a circular plaza, moaning and in obvious pain. He made a note to ask about it later. He found himself stopping at the top of the steps… he found it.

'Call Taichi Kamiya.' He ordered mentally, the psychic link carried the order and in a moment, he heard Tai's voice echo in his head.

"You found him?"

'Yep.'

"I'll get everyone. Where are you?"

'Just look for the supposed gas leak. And one more thing. No hurry.' Blake informed him. 'I have a feeling this will be entertaining.' He heard the girl call out something from behind. Something about the Agumon being spotted and about to engage with another human, a brown haired fourteen year old that stuck Blake as yet another google head, just without the googles, and picking a fight with an orange lizard didn't strake him as intelligent.

"Never stopped me." Blake muttered to himself, trying to get closer to the action. He could hear both of them talking.

"…Fans all over will chant my name! They'll say Marcus Damon is the best!" The boy yelled. Marcus Damon huh.

"Dry up! Boy, you're really full of yourself!" The orange reptile, said. He's not wrong there. Blake though as he noticed the lizard looked more like Agumon. "You're just like all the other humans! All talk and no action!"

"Keep it up and I'll knock you out like I did these guys!" Blake then knew it was the young boy beat up those young men he passed earlier. They probably deserved it.

"What'd ya do!? Talk them all to sleep!"

"Hey you!" Blake was startled by the sudden yell. "Stop right there! You can't fight that creature! He's too dangerous!" Blake heard the woman call out from behind. What was her name, Yoshi something.

"Look toots! I'm the dangerous fighter here! And I don't need any baby sitter to hold my hand!" Marcus called out.

"He's right! This is between him and me!" The Agumon backed up.

"This is a fight between men. So stay out of it!"

"Fine then!" The Yoshi girl retorted.

"Yoshi! Don't back down from him!" The voice from earlier, Blake noticed that it was coming from the device in her hand. Yoshi's stepped forward.

"This is your last warning!" She yelled.

"I don't know what you are, but your going down." Marcus said to the reptile as they rushed each other. Claw meet face. Fist meet muzzle. Both combatants flew across the battle field from the resulting blows.

"Hey! I wasn't ready!" The reptile said recovering from the flight. "I was expiating you to say '1,2,3,Go.' Like this. 1,2,3,Go!" The reptile went at him again, only for Marcus to kick him to the Agumon's surprise.

"What's your excuse this time?!" Marcus demanded just before a claw hit him in the face.

"No more talk!"

"Fine! Let's do some real fighting!"

The two combatants began to fight, matching each other blow for blow, while Yoshi stood shocked, Blake wished he had popcorn.

* * *

Takuya let out a frustrated huff. This was Koji's strong point, patience, though he admittedly better then when he entered the digital world. Walking down the main street of a Yokohama neighbourhood that reminded him of Jiyugoka, just the smell of salt air from being so close to the ocean reminded him he wasn't in Jiyugoka. He looked at the cherry blossoms in bloom on the street side, reminded of the neighbourhood's Cherry Blossom Festival and somehow asked himself if Kari wouldn't mind joining the festivities this friday…

His thoughts was interrupted by someone bumping into him, someone wearing a yellow jacket. He felt the man step on his foot.

"Ow!" Takuya yelled. It didn't so much hurt, it was just the shock. He turn to the man in the yellow coat. "Hey! Watch where your go…" He's foot meet something. Looking down, he found the sole of his foot was atop of a white and gold metal egg… A digi-metal. The warrior of flame picked up the metal to get a closer look at it. His class touched on Ancient Egypt last year, one of the few things Takuya paid any attention to in class. The egg reminded him of an artefact found, lost for centuries and left to the mercy of unforgiving time, sealed in a tomb with an ancient mummified king who might of needed the artefact in the afterlife. That and he remembered seeing this colour theme, on a digimon. Nefertimon. He found a symbol on it, one of the crests? He'd have to ask Tai or Matt about it.

Next to it, now under his shoe was a digimon card. He picked it up finding a picture of the digi-metal on it. The card declared it as the 'Digi-metal of light.' He slipped the metal into his jacket pocket, just as his phone vibrated. It was a text from Tai.

"Blake found the rouge Agumon. Said he wasn't hostile. Said he'd meet us at a hamburger stand in Marine Park."

* * *

Two combatants lied on the ground panting, the sunset dying the area a bright orange. The display of combat had ensnared the attention of the girl long enough for Blake to lift something from the girl's pocket but had yet to examine what it was he picked up. He was just watching the two combatants make up. What ever caused their conflict was long forgotten now as the digital reptile and human sat up and began to introduce themselves to each other.

"…the only guy who matched me blow for blow in a fight before. That makes you the boss." The Agumon said. "From now on, you give the orders, and I'll faithfully follow." As Blake got closer, he could see that he was a darker shade of orange then the other Agumon. He then wondered if Digimon went by individual names, or were like some clans of metaphysical societies and they would know who each other were without names.

Blake then wondered something about what this Agumon said. Was he looking for a human partner? Was that why he came here?

"I'm your boss huh." The kid said, Marcus wasn't it. Marcus Damon? "I never thought that one day I'd have an employee as funny looking as you are."

"Freeze Right There!" Blake froze before remembering the officer that ran after him. He turned, so far, Marcus, Agumon or the officer had noted him standing to the side. She was holding something, a rectangle shaped deceive. "Lalamon! Realise!"

A flash of light later, a pink and green digimon floated between the officer and the two, much to the shock of Marcus. The Agumon wasn't so much shocked, but he was on the defensive.

"So, are you going to come quietly, or do I have to use force?" The officer demanded. Blake charged his weapon, a low pitched wine signalled that the plasma cell was warming up.

"Who is she talking to? You or me?" Blake heard Marcus ask.

"Don't let them take me back boss. Please." He then heard Agumon plead. "If they get me this time, they'll destroy me for sure."

That dismissed what ever doubts Blake had in his head. He aimed the weapon at the officer and made his presence know. "Hold your position and remain calm!

"What's going on here?" Marcus demanded.

"What are you doing kid?" Yoshi demanded.

"Better question is, why aren't you running?" Blake responded, turning to Marcus. "The smart move would be to run while she's distracted." The brown haired kid lifted Agumon over his shoulders.

"I've never had an employee before, and I'm not turning my only one over to you!" He told the girl as he began to run.

"Tell her boss!"

"Hey! Wait up!" Yoshi yelled as Lalamon began to attack. Two by two, shots of seeds pelted the ground at Marcus' feet, causing him to fall. Blake fired his weapon, hitting Lalamon first, then Yoshi.

Yoshi wasn't sure what happened after she blacked out, when she came too, one of the men that was knocked out was asking of she was alright. He had her DATS badge, saying it was left by the stairs. They also noticed Lalamon, but when she looked for her memory eraser, it was gone. This is the worst.

* * *

"Curious." Izzy said to himself, inspecting the digi-metal of knowledge again. He placed it on the table along with the metals of courage and love, Tentomon looking up at his partner with interest. "These metals have the same consistency as the crests but there's something missing to them. I wonder if they're like ores and need to be refined before they can be used."

Joey wasn't paying much attention. He had accessed the city wide Wi-Fi to hack in to various government databases and give him, Jamie and Blake identities. We was sure that J.P was looking over his shoulder once in a while. And he wasn't the only one of the remaining group that remained behind that wasn't paying attention. Tommy was on the phone with his mom, Joe was studying for his oral exam, Zoe and Takato walked over to the Matsuki Bakery for dinner and Guilmon was playing with Gomamon.

"I don't know what's gotten into him mom but…" Tommy stated as the conversation took on a sudden hostility. "You know how crazy that sounds? Where is he now?" Tommy bit his lip as he got what sounded like a sigh and depressed expiation that all his bother said was that he was going out. "No. That's alright mom. I'm sure to run into him. Yes, I know it's a school night. I'll be home before eight. Love you too."

The orange hat youngster hung up and leaned back on a near by tree with a look of mild terror.

"Big brother?" Joey asked, not looking up from his screen as a message appeared on his laptop, and a photo.

"Worse. He may have found Neemon in my room and now he's coming to find me." Tommy answered.

"That's mildly concerning." Izzy mentioned.

"What's DATS?" Joey asked catching everyone's attention. JP was the first to speak up.

"Some special police devision based out of Yokohama. They were all over the Shibuya Incident." He explained. "They called themselves the Digital Accident Tactics Squad."

"That might mean…" Joe started. "The government knows about digimon?"

"Looks like it." Izzy answered. "This is odd."

"What?" JP asked.

"There's a lot of network traffic being routed though Shinjuku. I'm just having trouble understanding why." The young computer geek looked up to the building looming over them, as it the building itself had something to do with it.

* * *

"Come on damn it." Blake cursed under his breath. He was concerned that Joey had forgotten to update the smartphone's apps until the door clicked and unlocked. He pushed it open and let Marcus and Agumon into the tower.

"I gotta hand it to ya boss. That was a great escape." Agumon complimented as they made it to the observation deck.

"Thanks Agumon. But there's been one thing that's been bothering me. Who are we running away from!?" Marcus demanded. "And what kind of thing are you anyway? Where did you come from?"

"Gee. I don't know." Agumon said, looking over the city. "I guess I come from the institution."

"The institution?" Blake asked.

"Please don't let them take me back there." Agumon pleaded.

"What am I getting myself into this time?" Marcus asked no one in particular as Blake started texting Tai, giving him the details of what happened. He gave him a moment to digest and text back while watching what was taking place. "I don't know what kind of trouble your in, but I'll help you out."

"Oh thank you boss. I'll never ask for another thing again." There was a loud growl that told the two humans otherwise. "Except food. I'm starved."

Blake laughed as his phone ran. He let the two talk it out as he picked up.

"I'm guessing you couldn't wait for a text." Blake said to the bushy haired boy on the other end.

"Yeah. What do you mean there's a government agency hunting digimon in Yokohama?" Tai demanded.

"I don't know. But that's not even the start of it. The officer had a digi-vice, or at least it looked like a digi-vice. It didn't look like the one you had originally. Or one of the new ones either." Blake answered. "I'd go as far to say that this one seemed… wrong."

"Like the emperor's?"

"Since I've never seen the emperor's to begin with, I wouldn't know. But it seemed more like a cheap knock off rather then an actuarial digi…"

"Back off!" Blake heard Marcus yell.

"Where are you?" Blake asked.

"Marine Park. With everyone else. We're about to order." Tai answered.

"Make it take away. And bring a few extra burgers. We're on the observation deck of Marine Tower."

"With the other Agumon and the new Digidestine right."

"Yep. You might want to hurry." Blake hung up and rejoined the two. "I've got a friend bringing food. Hope you like hamburgers."

"A hamburger sounds pretty good right about now."

"A friend?" Marcus asked with some skepticism.

"He has more experience in this sort of thing. Plus he's a likeable fellow. Little hard headed but you two will get along. Agumon." Blake turned his attention to the digital reptile. "What is the institution?"

* * *

"And done." Jamie cheered. She allowed herself in enjoy the moment before reminding herself that she has yet to test the spire's new 'configuration' and observe the results. If Bokomon's substations were correct then the control spire's energy will stop powering the black rings, and start repelling them, along with freeing any digimon in the area.

She was just stuck on how to force the spire to use the configuration laid out before it. She was certain that the symbols on the spire dictated…

"Come on Davis. Ask me who's there." She heard Veemon's voice, it was hard to miss that lisp. She figured if anyone loved a knock knock joke, it would be that google head. Once her carpet made it to the ground, she walked over to the boy and his blue reptile partner.

"Who kicked your puppy?" Jamie asked, half expecting her attempt at humour to fail.

"She hates me." Davis moaned.

"Who? Kari? I highly doubt that."

"She said she couldn't stand me."

"What did you do to make her feel that way?" Davis stayed silent. "You neglected to digest the entire conversation." Jamie sighed. Typical.

"I've never seen Davis this upset." Veemon told Jamie.

"He will get over it eventually. Time heals all…"

"Incoming!"

They were interrupted by a sudden flood of Gazimon. Jamie was able to hide behind the spire itself. But the others weren't so lucky. The grey rabbit like digimon subdued the four humans and three digimon quickly. One was still fighting. Veemon. But three on one was not a fair fight. She needed to even the odds.

She picked a phone that was, thankfully left near by. Unfortunately,, she was unable to send a message because of her inexperience with the 'infernal' and 'unfriendly' input method. She pushed back the urge to throw the device in frustration. She couldn't risk a brute force attack. For one, there where more of them then there are of her, even a summoned elemental or two wouldn't even those odds much. Two, there was a risk of harm to the children, and the digimon. And three, they were innocent digimon. She needed something that would give her rapid dominance over the field.

Yeah, the reconfigured spire would do it. But it needed to use the new configuration.

* * *

It wasn't hard for Matt to imagine the smile on his partner's face as he scuffed down the burgers and fries he passed under the table, given they both were staving. He caught up with Tai who was ordering for two digimon and was scarfing down a burger himself. Takuya got there before them both, already ordered and ate. He left with Tai to meet this new Agumon, and because he wanted to talk to him about something. Matt was going to wait for the others to arrive, and give them the full run down.

"Uh... Matt right?"

Matt looked up from his meal to find Koichi standing over the table with his own meal, as if he was about to ask if the seat was free.

"Hey. Take a seat. Just mind Gabumon under the table." Matt told the older twin who placed the tray on the table and took the seat across from him. He noticed how uncomfortable the boy looked. He wanted to ask something but he wasn't sure about how to ask and not offend him. Given how conflicted the boy look, and how shy he seemed to be, Matt would have to be the one to ask first. "What's on your mind?"

At first, Koichi looked hesitant to say, but it seemed like something gave the boy a push. "It's about T.K."

"Yeah? What about him?"

"Ever since Duskmon attacked, he's been… cautious, and the odd look he gives me. Sometimes I can't tell wether he thinks I'm going to lash out at him or disappear into a cloud of smoke." Koichi explained. "Then there's the words Duskmon said to me. 'Doubt is a funny thing. How it can corrupt hope and twist it.' It didn't make sense at first…"

"But you figure he was referring to the crest holder rather then actuarial hope. This is starting to make a lot of sense to me."

"Did something happen?"

"Well, I'm not sure T.K would like it if I told you, but something did happen." Matt crushed his drinking cup as he recalled the event. "It was a long time ago, but T.K still carries the scars from the final battle between us and our first opponent, Devimon. Devimon used the powers of darkness because he thought it would make him invincible, but Angeamon used up all of his own energy to defeat him. Angeamon knew he would be reconfigured afterwards, but he did it anyway to save T.K. T.K was scared because it was the first time Patamon had ever digivolved, and he thought he'd never see him again. None of us knew that much about Digimon back then, so we all thought that we'd seen the last of Patamon. I guess that fear never really left T.K, or the lesson that the importance of life outweighs the power of darkness. I guess T.K has never really gotten over that. After all these years, it still has an effect."

"It's understandable." Koichi nodded knowing all too well the pain of losing someone close.

"And it only gotten worse from there with Etemon, Myotismon and the Dark Masters." Matt added, shuddering at the reminder of being turned into a key chain by Piedmon. "Everyone in our group has something against the powers of darkness. No offence. You seem to be the exception to our perceptions."

"None taken." Koichi assured him. "I still have some guilt after… after Cherubimon used me against my brother as Duskmon."

This surpassed Matt, and Gabumon who nearly chocked on his burger. "You used to be… Is that why he's after you?"

"I really don't know. I thought Duskmon and Loweemon were the same entity, just representing different aspects of darkness." Koichi shock his head in distress. "The other sprits Cherubimon had were animated but from what Loweemon told me, even they need human hosts now."

"I see." Matt nodded, still not entirely understanding the sprit partner concepts. Koichi noticed the blonde's confusion and went back to the original topic.

"I'm just concerned that T.K's prejudice towards darkness might destroy our friendship." Koichi said worriedly.

"Then you should probably talk to him about it." Matt concluded for him.

"I know. I just don't want to accidentally open old scars." Koichi explained as a third person came up and sat their tray on the table.

"What scars?" Yolei asked. Matt put on a reassuring smile to reassure himself more then anyone else.

"Nothing you need to worry about Yolei." Matt assured her. "I need to get to Marine Tower before something bad happens. I trust Tai, and I guess Takuya too, I just have a bad feeling about all this."

"That's okay Matt. I feel the same way." Gabumon assured him. "It's probably the mustard on those burgers."

"Anyway." Matt pointed his digi-vice at his partner and discretely let him get pulled into the device. "If you see Henry and Terriormon, tell them we're meeting at Marine Tower."

"No problem Matt." Yolei smiled as the older digidestine walked off. She turned to the warrior of darkness with concern. "He was joking about the mustard right."

"I think so. Because it feels like something's coming." Koichi answered. "Something evil."

* * *

It wasn't took long before Marcus heard the elevator ding and open, letting out two brown haired google wearing boys. The older one, wore a green blazer, a school uniform he thought. The other, wore something more casual.

"Tai. Takuya." Blake greeted.

"Something smells good." The darker Agumon commented.

"Sure does." Marcus backed up as the older boy handed Agumon a paper bag.

"Dig in then. I'm Tai by the way." He offered his hand to Marcus.

"Marcus Damon." Marcus accepted greatly. "Nice to meet you both."

"Same here. I'm Takuya." The younger one introduced.

"Tai. Aren't you going to let me out?" Marcus heard, coming from Tai's pocket. The boy in question produced his digi-vice from his pocket and let Agumon out. "Thanks Tai. Something smells good."

Marcus was surprised to find another Agumon appearing out of nowhere as Tai sat down and handed him a burger from the other paper bag he had.

"Where…" Marcus asked.

"The digital world." Blake answered.

"They're called Digimon. Digital monsters." Takuya explained.

"They come from this world created from the communication systems of this world until… well… we don't know what happened." Tai took over. "It just sort of separated and became it's own world, still connected to ours. They can enter our world and we can enter theirs. And there are times when it needs a group of humans to help keep it safe."

"The digidestine." Takuya added. "Some work with digimon partners, others take on digimon forms."

"So there are more of you?" Marcus asked.

"Matt, Koichi, Yolei and Henry should be here soon." Tai explained. "And there are more of us back in Tokyo."

"Anywhere near West Shinjuku?" Marcus asked.

"Henry is." Takuya answered.

"I live there with my mom and sister. My mom wanted to move to Yokohama a few years ago but, something stopped us."

"And yet, you were still in Yokohama at the same time we were to find a stray digimon." Blake said. "And you didn't receive a phone call?"

"No. Just these punks claimed to be ultimate fighters in my regular chatroom." Marcus shrugged. "They challenged me and guess what."

"You won. Or were those fifteen teenage guys just pass out for no apparent reason." Blake bated as the elevator opened again. This time, it was a blond teenager wearing the same uniform as Tai, followed by reptile wearing blue fur. "You didn't start singing did you?" Blake asked the new comer.

"Why?" The blond asked.

"I just making sure a horde of rabid fans didn't run over fifteen poor boys."

"Right. Who…"

"Matt. Meet Marcus." Tai introduced.

"Hey." He turned back to Tai. "You heard from Kari yet?"

"Not yet." Tai answered.

"Then there's the fact that you and the Agumon you just meet were meeting each other's punches." Blake pointed out. "Even a rookie digimon has strength and speed superior to any human. It takes either an augmented or well trained human to match a digimon in battle."

"Meaning?" Marcus asked.

"I don't know yet."

"Do you have a digi-vice?" Matt asked.

"A what?" To answer Marcus' question, Matt showed his digi-vice to him. "No. Never seen one until today."

Matt turned to Blake. "You sure he's a digidestine?"

"I said it was likely." Blake shot back as the elevator opened again.

"Terriormon." They heard someone moan.

"What? Momentai." Out stepped a red faced girl with lavander hair and a bandana, a chinese boy with a dog eared rabbit hanging from his neck, and a black haired boy wearing a blue baseball cap. The girl noticed Marcus right away.

"Hi." She said walking up to him. "I'm Yolei."

"Marcus."

"Hey." The chinese boy nodded. "I'm Henry."

"Koichi." The black haired boy said simply.

"Good. Now we're all here. Let's get down to business." Blake said quickly.

"You said you lived in Tokyo right?" Tai asked. Marcus nodded. "So somehow, we need to get his Agumon on a train without being noticed."

"Or seen by security cameras. If they see him, they'll start looking in Tokyo for him." Yolei put forward.

"Let's not give them that reason just yet." Koichi added.

"Why don't we use Tai's laptop and get Agumon to Tokyo though the digital world?" Takuya put forward.

"Because, Marcus doesn't have a digi-vice, and someone needs to take him back though the digital gate in to Tokyo." Henry rejected. "And even if he did, we all need go back to Tokyo via train to avoid supposition. We all bought return tickets. It would raise flags if we didn't use them."

"What if someone did wait for him there?" Tai asked. "I haven't heard anything from Kari or Izzy yet. I think they might still be in the digital world. If they are, I'll take both Agumon with me into the digital world, have them take Marcus' Agumon to Shinjuku and wait for us to get there."

Matt's phone rang.

"It's TK. I think." Matt said showing them what was on screen, a jumble of numbers and letters.

"No. It's Jamie. The woman couldn't text with a keypad even if her life depended on it." Blake assured him. "And I think she's trying to get some help."

"You sure?" Tai asked.

"Unless you can think of any other reason Matt would receive a text from TK that could only come from an autistic monkey on crack."

"Right. Blake, Takuya, Koichi, Matt, Yolei. We're going to back them up." Tai ordered as he set up the laptop. "Henry, Marcus, wait here. We'll be back soon."

Marcus wasn't going to take orders, but he wasn't in any position to argue. Tai aimed his digi-vice at the computer screen, as did everyone else going with him.

"Digi-Port open!"

* * *

Stalking wasn't the term Koji was using at the current moment. But the fact was, he didn't like the idea that there was this suck up girl wondering around sicking a fox on any digimon that comes ten miles near her. He was concerned for Koichi, since this was where he and his, until recently, estranged twin meet almost daily since their biological mother worked at the local hospital. He was also concerned about Tommy, Takato, Guilmon, Neemon and probably any other digidestine and their digimon partner who would turn out to be living in Shinjuku like Henry.

And he was worried about the girl, as much as it pained him to say it. If it was anyone else with their version of their lone wolf act, he would have left them to sort it out for themselves. But this was a digidestine, and the digital world was already in fear of one tyrant.

He had to keep his distance. Lobomon was well aware of Renamon's presence, watching over her like a guardian. He began to wonder if Renamon was only trying to please Rika by attacking digimon and getting stronger.

The red haired girl continued to walk though the crowd, like she's the only one there.

"So then I said to him, I said 'One card man and your back to rookie.' Hey! That's really strange. It's her, I mean, It's you isn't it." Koji noticed a group of boys, not much older then him, stop and pay attention to Rika. One was pointing at her, the lead boy with a white and blue shirt.

"You're incompressible."

"Comprehend this. That's the Digimon Queen. I mean it's synchronistically dude." Koji had to wonder if this kid even knew what synchronistically meant.

"Come on. That's a girl man." Rika turned and Koji thought that she would attack them at any moment, but she just gave them her best death stare.

"Yeah. I noticed, and she's kinda cute too. Sorta like Minami with a punk, you know sorta edge."

Growing board of them, Rika turned and walked away, much to Koji's thanks. He continued to follow the red head until they got to a crosswalk. The world around Koji began to fade, he was caught in Rika's daydream.

"Renamon." He heard her voice echo. The fox digimon in question appeared behind her.

"Rika."

"If I'm so good, then why haven't you digivolved?"

"I don't know."

"I think it's your fault. You should try harder."

"What are you trying to say to me Rika."

Rika turned. Koji took a step back, but knew it was futile to hide. There was nothing to hide in or behind.

"It's not my fault, I'm the best Tamer there is."

"So you are. I never said you weren't."

"Well see that you don't. I'm the best, and I won't settle for less then that out of you. Do you understand me."

"Always."

"Then you know I'm not kidding around here."

"I know."

With that, the world faded back into place. Koji shocked his head clear as his senses were suddenly assaulted by the loud noises, bright lights and foul smells of city life. He almost missed Rika mutter something under her breath.

"She will be the best. Like me." She pulled off her headphones when the someone's angered yell didn't fail to get her attention.

"What the hell did you get my brother in to Minamoto!"

* * *

"No matter what you do. I'll never give up." Jamie heard Veemon moan weakly. She looked briefly at the control ring in her hand. She hoped that that her ancestors were watching over her undertaking, and this foolish act will not be her undoing. She pushed the ring around her head…

Even the digimon emperor, and the digidestine coming from Yokohama heard her scream.


	7. In a Deep, Dark, Time Fissure

**Chapter Six: In a Deep, Dark, Time Fissure**

An old man sat on a park bench in a large city, night taking it fully in it's grip, the cold air filling his lungs. Hong Kong is a great city. He could still remember when it was under the British Empire, until the one country, two systems policy came in. Still, he could always find great dumplings, no matter which timeline.

A young woman stepped off a bus. There was nothing odd about that but the girl was really out of place, a foreigner but you wouldn't think unless you really looked. Her clothes were made from a material that wouldn't be invented for another eighty years, her watch was a psychic link device, designed to communicate with her brain directly and tattooed on her forearm was a number next to a small but messy scar, something not done by a surgeon of any professional skill and admit to it.

"You wanted to see me sir?" The girl asked the old man.

"I just wanted you to check in. Dumping?" The man offered.

"No thanks. I've just had breakfast."

"Suit yourself. Did you see Raptor one's escape though?"

"Right up until he encountered the son of Spencer Damon. I couldn't stay longer. The Black Star was there sooner then I expected. And he wasn't alone."

"And the devices?"

"We've hit a snag. Something in the digital world has managed to block the digital gates created by the space occultation devices we gave Kurata. He has been unable to access the digital world for the past four years. Not that I've agreed with that part of the plan anyway. The man is insane."

"Is he or any of the Confidentially ministry aware of Hypnos?"

"No. The Ministry of Defence is keeping Hypnos under wraps, along with everyone else on the Board of Directors. They won't even let their government leaders know about the giant computers under the government building, the pentagon, and CERN. But the Black Star will find out about both agencies in due time."

"He won't agree with either of their methods. DATS' policy of erasing civilian's memories directly violates the Sentient Rights Movement. And we both know that Yamaki's ambitions aren't much better. What of our recruits?"

"We may have a problem with Miranda. I'm aware that she might go rouge. I know she has the Diminutional Manipulator, but she has nothing to lose but the gains of this plan if she defects."

"Then identify the problem with the oscillation devices. After that, you may dispose of her, and her pet. But until then, make sure she doesn't succumb to her feelings. Am I clear?"

"Clear."

* * *

Pain.

Okay. She knew pain was a good start. She hasn't died. Not yet at least. Though she was cold, her head was throbbing, and she couldn't see a thing. She then released that her eyes were still closed. She opened them, only to be meet with black. This wasn't just darkness… darkness was natural. Passive and timid, parting the way for light. This was aggressive, all consuming, as if nothing else existed.

No. Something else did exist. Something right here with her.

"Who is there?!" She called out into the black. "Answer me!"

The only response she got was a distant chuckle.

* * *

"Nice place." The darker Agumon said, looking around the riverside where four humans, four digimon and two hybrids ended up. "Sky needs a little work."

"You've never been here?" Gabumon asked. "But you're a digimon. All digimon were born in the digital world."

"He said he was born in the institution." the lighter Agumon answered for his counterpart.

"And begs the question how did a bunch of humans get their grubby hands on a digimon egg." Blake huffed looking up into the sky. "And only the second most interesting question to be asked today. The first in three, two…"

"Did you two digi-volve as we went though the gate?" Matt asked the two hybrids.

"Wrong ques…" Blake turned to find that Takuya and Koichi weren't in their human forms anymore. "Did not see that coming."

In response, Takuya checked his hands, finding them in gauntlets. "I'll say. I didn't even notice." He added, noticing that his voice deepened from Agunimon's form. "Koichi?"

"Does anyone else feel that?" The warrior of darkness asked. Koichi was looking up towards the darkening sky as it rumbled with thunder and flashed with lightning.

"Good thing JP isn't here. He hates thunderstorms." Takuya noted.

"Isn't he the warrior of thunder?" Tai asked.

"Which is why he isn't afraid of it anymore. But it's weird."

"What is?" Yolei asked.

"It doesn't feel like an actuarial storm." Hawkmon answered for her partner.

"But it looks like a storm." Tai pointed out.

"They're right Tai. That storm shouldn't be here." His partner pointed out.

"Only one expiration fits what we're looking at here. I sense mayhem about." Blake noted before they heard something… a moan.

"That sounded like…" Takuya began, looking towards the river. "Cody?!"

He didn't need to say anything more, everyone was running towards the river, finding said boy passed out by the water. Next to him was the bruised and worn for mom of a small white digimon, assumably Armadillomon's in-training form. Koichi knelled down, checked the boy's pulse. It was obvious that he was cold, and his breathing was fast and shallow.

"Is he okay?" The darker Agumon asked.

"He'll be fine once he wakes up." Gabumon assured him. "Let's get them some water. Both of them will need it."

"He's in shock!" Koichi announced.

"Med kit from my bag." Blake pointed out throwing the pack to Yolei. "Look for the red crescent on a titanium case. You all noticed that right?"

"Apart from the eight year old who looks like he's at death's door, not much." Takuya pointed out. Once Yolei got the kit out of the bag, Takuya took it and used it to elevate Davis' legs.

"He's nine. And I meant Koichi feeling for a pulse though gauntlets, and you knowing basic first aid. There's a big blue blanket in the back pocket." He pointed out before finding something on the young boy's shoulder. Something beried half under the flesh but still partially exposed. "Hold up. This doesn't seem like garden verity shock to me. Help me roll him over."

Matt complied, only to wish he hadn't. Sticking out from under Cody's shirt was an all too gory sight. But that wasn't what made him ill. It was what was berried in the boy's shoulder that made him want to throw up. A black gear…

"Stars above." Was all Blake could say, already running though possible ways to stop the bleeding and replace the blood already lost.

"What is that thing?" Yolei asked, not expecting an answer.

He grabbed his digi-vice from his pocket, aimed it at the boy's shoulder. Both Yolei and Blake watched in awe as the device lit up and the gear was pushed out from the young boy's body and shattered, the only proof that the gear was ever there was the dry blood, and a long thin scar down the boy's shoulder where the gear was, like it was inflicted years ago. Cody began to breathe easier, his breaths no longer as shallow. Colour and warmth was already returning to his skin.

"Makes sense you've seen those things before." Blake noted.

"What does that mean?" Matt challenged. Did he really think they were responsible for those things?

"Look around you. Does anything about this place seem right to you? The storm? The gear? Which by the way is another question entirely. But right now, we're standing in the middle of a time fissure. Two points in history that should never have connected pressed together with the past leaking into the present." Blake looked at the two older digidestine with concern. "Who or what else might be here?"

Koichi had an answer already in his mind, but before he could voice it, someone else spoke up.

"The river's frozen over!"

"Tai! You've got to see this!"

Matt and Tai turned to see their partners standing over the river's edge, which was, as Gabumon pointed out, frozen solid.

"Stay with Cody you two." Tai instructed Yolei and Hawkmon as everyone else got up to inspect the frozen water. "This is a little too weird. It's practically warm out. Why would this river freeze right though."

"It's a side effect of the time fissure. The general laws of physics in the area have been altered. If we don't close it soon, there might not be much left of the area." He produced his smartphone and pointed it up river. "Hope you guys don't mind walking."

"It's part of the job description." Tai pointed out. "Fighting evil digimon and walking long distances."

"What Joe wouldn't give for a working bus stop." Matt added.

"I'm guessing you guys didn't have Trailmon when you had to save the digital world." Takuya conceded. "At least you didn't need to lose your lunch every third trip."

"At least Mimi wouldn't whine about walking everywhere."

"Just don't throw up in her hat."

"Hey! I was eight!"

* * *

Gatomon in the meantime kept scratching at the ice in a feeble attempt of getting to her partner under a thick layer of ice.

"Did not!" She heard someone shout.

"Actuarially Tai, you did look kinda panicked after you woke up."

"Agumon!"

"In his defence, a pink head with long ears would make any human, on that particular earth think they're hallucinating. Or drunk. I actuarially remember this great brew of sake I picked up in 1459. Good year for throwing stars."

Down river, walking down the frozen waterway, Gatomon could easily make out five taller figures, accompanied by three stout ones. As they got closer, one of the taller figures looked more familiar. It wasn't until the bushy brown hair and the googles came into her vision did she recognise who it was.

"Tai! Agumon!" She dashed towards the group without a second thought, forgetting what she was running on. Her attempt to stop before running into anyone, failed with her running into her partner's brother.

"Gatomon?" Tai was able utter. "Wh…"

"She's trapped in the ice! I can't get her out!" The white digital cat yelled in a panic before running back up the river.

"Who?!" Tai called out as he followed, trying to both run and stay up right on the ice at the same time. Everyone wearing shoes had some trouble, Matt most of all but Blake wasn't having as much.

It wasn't long until Takuya saw her, moments before anyone else did. When he did, he launched himself into the air and with a Pyro Tornado Attack, surprising everyone when his round house kick hit the frozen ground. Their attention was turned to the girl frozen under the ice.

"Kari!" Tai yelled.

"How did she get under there?" Koichi asked.

"Who cares? We need to get her out."

"Out the way Tai!" his partner ordered, flames filling his jaw. Tai was quick to move out of the way as an orange ball of flames was let lose and hit the ice.

"Need more fire power." Tai noted as he produced the orange and blue digi-vice from his jacket pocket as Matt took the blue and silver digi-vice from his. Both teenagers summoned the fractal codes around their hands and scanned them with the devices. Both partner digimon were encased in fractal code, skin stripped, and shape reformed. Blake saw the familiar sight of Greymon standing where the small orange reptile used to stand, but saw an unfamiliar digimon replace Gabumon, a large ferrous wolf with blue and white fur, similar to what the rookie was wearing. Garurumon.

"Care to help Agumon?" Blake asked the remaining rookie as he aimed an open palm at the girl.

"With what?" Agumon asked. "I can't see anyone under there." Blake looked at the confused Agumon then to the digimon powering up their attacks.

"Nova bla…"

"Howling blas…"

"Pyro tor…"

"Shadow me…"

"Stop!" They heard Blake yell. "She's not actuarially down there."

"You're kidding right." Koichi said unconvinced.

"Can't you see anyone down there?" Tai yelled at the the boy. "We have to get he out."

"Who?" The remaining Agumon asked. "I can't anything down there."

"Maybe your not looking hard enough." Gatomon suggested.

"Then there's the matter of her outfit." Blake added. "Correct me if I'm wrong but she has a stopwatch around her neck right."

"No! A whistle!" Tai corrected.

"But she gave her whistle to me when she left the digital world the first time." Gatomon corrected. "She's wearing that camera. You know, the one your parents got her last christmas."

"She right. But at least she's wearing a jacket." Garurumon added.

"She's not wearing a jacket." Greymon pointed out.

"I was wondering why I could see she wearing a sleeveless top and a pair of purple shorts." Takuya noted.

"It's an illusion, designed to waste our time and energy." Koichi noted. "Agumon hadn't meet Kari so the illusion doesn't affect him."

"Mind doesn't know what to fill the void with so it leaves it blank." Blake explained. "Not a bad method if your trying to fool someone who knows the target well. More then one, you'll get mixed reactions."

"If she's not here. Then where is she?" Gatomon asked, the question that was on everyone, or at least Takuya's, Tai's and Greymon's mind. She then recalled something. "Can we do what Jamie did but in reverse."

"Pardon?" Tai asked.

"She did this…" It was hard for Gatomon to explain. "She drew this symbol on the back of Kari's hand since she didn't have a digi-vice. Yolei said it looked like the greek letter for omega."

"If she used a call-recall teleportation spell then I doubt it. The recall rune needs to be recharged and it can only bring someone too the rune." Blake explained.

"We better keep moving." Koichi suggested.

"No arguments there." Matt agreed, knowing all too well that an old enemy was waiting for them. And he wouldn't be alone.

* * *

Kari moaned. She wasn't sure what happened. She tried to recall what happened before. The Gazimon swarming them, Veemon standing up to their leader, the control spire beginning to glow… and Jamie screaming before she blacked out. She recalled Gatomon telling her…

"Gatomon!" She called out now realising that her partner Digimon wasn't with her. She got to her feet and found herself in the middle of the village square. She could see a figure up ahead. "Is that you Gatomon?"

"I am pledged to obey your command, Devimon." The figure began to turn towards Kari. She recognised the figure. Leomon, but there was something very wrong. His fur was darker, and his eyes…

"I've been commanded by my master to take the digi-destine."

Kari's heart didn't miss a beat.

A flash of blue light from behind her blinded the corrupted Leomon long enough for her to run.

* * *

"Patamon! No!"

TK jerked upwards from his sleep, lying in a bed, sitting on a stairway. What was weird was the set of googles hanging from the banister. They kinda reminded him of Tai's. His thoughts turned elsewhere when he wondered where Patamon was. Last he remembered, he was talking to Kari, calming down after the fight he had with Davis over his sister. Then the Gazimon came in and restrained everyone they could, but Veemon was up against only two of them. He was getting his ass handed to him. Then the scream…

"Patamon!" TK called out. "Patamon!"

"Lose something?" TK froze when he heard the voice. "Death Claw!"

The blonde jumped out of the way before the hand hit the ground, grabbing concrete. TK rolled down the stairs towards the ground. He came to rest, battered, bruised and still breathing. He wasted no time in getting to his feet and running for cover.

He couldn't believe it. Devimon. What was he doing here?

His question was interrupted by a bight blue flash. Devimon screamed in pain from the light, and TK saw it as a chance to put as much distance between himself and his nightmare.

* * *

Davis felt his head throb and teeth chatter as he opened his eyes. As much as he wanted to stay in bed, the cold was getting to him. When he opened his eyes, he figured out why it was so cold and meet by a vision of white. Everything on the mountainside was covered in a blanket of snow.

"Great." He muttered as he shivered, not noticing that his voice echoed. "I hate the cold. Veemon?" He noticed that his partner wasn't there. Last he remembered, he was being slammed into the control spire. He tried to recall the event, the Gazimon rushing him, the blue reptile hitting the spire, hard. Jamie screaming and…

Davis' thoughts were interrupted by someone talking. It sounded like…

"Hello?" Davis called out. "Veemon? Kari? Cody? Jamie? TJ?"

"Davis!" He heard TK's voice. Davis sighed in relief, turning to face the blonde, only to find that he wasn't there. "She didn't mention any of that!" The voice continued enraged. "Your sister didn't mention anything bad about you. In fact, she didn't even mention you at all. You're the one with the big mouth!"

"If you've got a problem with me, why don't we settle it right now!" Then came his own voice from behind him. He turned out of shock rather then a need to know who was behind him.

"Seriously. I think she's sweet on you." Then came Blake's voice. He came walking from behind the control spire, Gatomon in his arms with Takuya's digimon from following, carrying the sleeping figure of Kari Kamiya in his red and black arms. They were walking towards Davis.

"What makes you say that?" Takuya asked.

"Lets just say I've been in that place once before." Blake explained as Davis ran up to them.

"Blake! Takuya!" Davis called out. "What happened to…" He stopped he reached them, but they kept going… and passed right though Davis, like they were ghosts.

"It's the same story every time and it begins the same way." Blake finished as they began to walk down the mountainside. "Boy meets girl."

"You slipped Gatomon's tail ring in my pocket didn't you." Takuya accused.

"I don't know what your talking about." Blake defected. Davis tried to follow but when they made a sharp turn, they vanished. He felt something wet on the back of his neck. When he turned, he found… bubbles? Caught in the reflection of one of them was… the Digimon Emperor! Before he could try to make sense of those thoughts, something jumped out of the snow at him, and almost ran into him.

A girl.

"Woah!' She yelled, stopping before they collided. Davis could tell one thing about her immediately. She wasn't human. And he wasn't so sure that she was a digimon either. Call it instinct. She had the shape of a human girl, wasn't bad looking either. But her skin was a lustrous gold, like she was spray painted with the valuable shiny metal, her hair as white as the snow, and her eyes, gold like a cat's pupils dilated into circles but it wouldn't be hard for Davis to imagine them a diamond shape. However, she wore a silver windbreaker jacket, a pair of navy blue skinny jeans and Doc Martians. She had a satchel over he shoulder, and a pair of googles she pulled down to her neck to get a better look at the boy she nearly ran into. "Star's above! What on Terra are doing just standing there like your waiting for Claw's latest album? We're in the middle of a tacyonic fallout. We've got to get out of here before elementals show up."

"Elemen…" Davis could answer, he was pushed out of the way by the girl. An icicle missed his head by micrometers, impaling the ground instead. Davis heard the ele-whatsit come closer, an imposing figure made of ice. The girl grabbed his arm, pull him to his feet and run pass the elemental, dragging him down the mountainside. She threw something, pulling it out of her bag and throwing it at the thing. Davis noticed the pin fall to the ground just, and knew what it was…

The explosion that followed rocked the area.

* * *

"What was that?" Matt asked, pointing up to the top of the mountain, over the village that Garurumon led them to. A large blue flash on the white capped peak were the control spire stood.

"That can't be good." Koichi noted.

"It looks like some sort of fusion explosion. Endothermic too. Your basically looking at fire so cold, it burns." Blake explained. "And turns organic material hard and brittle."

"Freezing fire?" Greymon asked, sceptical.

"I guess anything's possible." Tai shrugged.

"But why here?" Gatomon asked the million dollar question.

"I can count the number of people capable of making that explosion on my fingers and toes. Top of the list. Her." Blake answered as everyone began to run towards the entrance. "Let's split up. We stand a better chance of finding everyone sooner that way."

"Right. Koichi, Blake, Agumon, you guys come with me and Greymon." Tai ordered. "Takuya, Gatomon, Matt, Garurumon…"

"We got it." Garurumon interrupted. "All roads converge on the mountainside. We'll meet up at the path towards the peak."

"Roger."

Tai, Koichi and Blake turned left while Takuya and Matt veered right. And with each turn, the ranks began to thin. Takuya took a near by stairway when Gatomon though she heard Kari, leaving Matt and Garaurumon by themselves. Blake and Agumon were first of Tai's group to split off after spotting something disappear down an ally. Koichi thought he heard something when he passed a turn, leaving Tai and Greymon.

* * *

TK came to a stop when he was confident enough that he had ran far enough, but for added measure, he his behind a stall of some sort. Peaking over it, he was willing to deem himself safe. Devimon. Of all the digimon out there, why him? TK thought to himself.

"Why not me TK?" Devimon asked. The voice came from right beside him as Devimon grabbed the blonde haired boy and lifted him up. "Human children. So fragile." He placed a claw over TK's neck and was about to push when someone interrupted, bashing Devimon in the back of his head, dropping TK. The boy looked up to see a sight that he remembered so often. Angemon. But there was something wrong.

"There you are pretty boy." Devimon turned his attention to the Angel digimon. "I was wondering when you were going to show up. Did the Goblinmon give you trouble? Death Hand!"

* * *

It wasn't what anyone expected to see in the digital world and yet, Matt found one. There were three things wrong with the picture. The first was an adult male lying in the middle of a digimon village. The second with how much like Marcus Damon he looked like. The third was the fact that he didn't have a pulse. It was the bullet wound that told him he was dead.

"Matt?" Garurumon asked. Both were saddened by anyone's death, but in the digital world, they were the digi-destine, they were suppose to keep the peace in this world. A human death… how did he even end up here anyway.

The man had something in his hands, holding on to it when he died. It was a camera of some sort, and it looked fried. Never the less, something on that camera was either worth dying for, or worth holding on too. It wasn't hard to remove from the dead man's grip. He figured at worse, he could figure out what was on the camera.

* * *

In reality, Blake wasn't quite sure of what he was chasing, but he knew it was important to an extent, and it was shiny. Mostly because it was shiny. Okay, he was probably chasing it solely because it was shiny. He wondered if it was a quark he picked up form a few centuries of dimension jumping.

He turned a corner and found himself face to face with a large purple digimon. But he could see though the illusion. Not that there was any need to.

"I was expecting something like this. Lord Cherubimon."

"So, you're the human boy Ophanimon thought would help." The illusion Cherubimon said. "You don't look like much."

"Call me human again and I'll show you looks can be deceiving." Blake threatened. The illusion was taken aback by the aggressive tone, and by the words used. 'Call me human again…'

"You resent your humanity?"

"Just being human. I've had the misfortune of being born into a species with a history of aggressive behaviour, and exploiting other species, and their own just for having a different colour skin." Blake explained, uncomfortable with the idea that he was explaining himself to the messenger. "But Cherubimon sent you here with a message. And I'm in a hurry."

"Very well. He wanted you to know that something has corrupted the other warriors."

"And Duskmon?"

"What?! That's impossible!"

"Tell Koichi that."

"If he's here then it's worse then I thought."

"Oh yeah. Who'd have the power to do something like that?"

"I have my suspicions. Meanwhile, since you found your way to Seraphimon and Ophanimon Reborn, you need to find Cherubimon Reborn."

"Come again?"

"The celestial digimon. You found them. I sense them close by." The Cherubimon illusion's eyes widened. "You didn't realise?"

"This is the first I've heard about any orders other then getting Bokomon and Neemon to the Legendary Warriors. I'm guessing my job wasn't done yet. You guys are lucky this emperor boy is running a muck in the digital world or I would be on the battlefields of Beijing right now."

"You want gratitude?"

"I'm only remarking on the irony of the situation. Is that all because…"

"No. Ophanimon wanted to remind you that the crests were originally forged from digi-metals by the powers of the warrior beasts themselves. They are also the only things the beast sprits can be held by. Once the warrior and beast are tamed, the crests can be forged."

"Okay. But what are beast sprits?"

"They're the…"

Before the illusion could answer, he flickered and dissolved into data.

"Great. That's what you get for not paying your long distance phone bill." Blake huffed before walking along. "How much does a sentient hologram to the future cost per minute anyway?"

* * *

It took Davis a while to catch his breath and for his limbs to stop shaking, but other then that, he was fine. The girl had dragged him down off the mountain and stop for him to take a breather, now she was tapping wildly at her tablet computer.

"You good?" She asked. Davis nodded. "Clair by the way. Professor Clair Weli'sol."

"Davis. Professor?" Davis questioned the girl. She couldn't be much older then his sister.

"Yeah. Chemistry, Physics, Biology… but for sanity sakes, Clair will do fine."

"Are you an alien?"

"Something like that. I don't think it will matter much if we don't do something about this Time Fissure."

"And that thing?"

"Ice Elemental. Feeds off heat. That's why it's an ice elemental."

"Then why does it need to feed off heat?"

"The same reason why carbon based life forms eat." She looked up from her tablet to address Davis directly. "Every living thing needs energy to live. But with that analogy, it's possible to put machines in that category." She returned her eyes to the tablet when it began to beep. "Right. Arcane signature matches… Oh."

"What?" Davis asked.

"You wouldn't happen to know a Jamie Sw'et?" Clair asked looking very worried. Davis didn't even get a chance to answer before she spoke again. "Depts of the void help us. "

* * *

For the first time in a long while, Kari was alone and afraid. Hiding in one of the empty houses, she kept breathing steady. She tried to keep optimistic. She tried to be brave. And all the while, she kept hoping that someone would find her. He brother. Her friends. Her partner. Her knight in shining armour.

A sword periced the wall she was hiding behind. She screamed when she saw the shining blade pass though the stonework backing away from it. Leomon crashed though it, raised the sword and…

"Pyro Tornato!"

It was like a battle cry that Kari prayed for. It came with a crash and the heat of Agunimon's flaming round house kick. She looked up to see Leomon flown across the room and into a wall and her saviour, almost frozen in that position.

"Kari!" Gatomon ran though the hole that Takuya left in the wall and hugged her partner, glad she was safe.

"Are you okay?" Takuya asked, knelling down.

"Any later and I wouldn't be." Kari huffed, returning Gatomon's hug.

"Fist of the beast king!" Takuya turned back just in time to shield Kari and Gatomon from the lion shaped aura. He watched as the king of beasts stood battle ready. Takuya wasn't going to let him near Kari.

"My turn. Pyro Punch!" His fist meet his target, surrounded by flames of determination. And the next, and the next. Leomon stumbled back and pulled a sword, about to rush the warrior of flame.

All that happened was Takuya caught it between his palms and pulled it from his opponent's hands, sending it across the room. With one punch, Leomon roared in pain. Takuya knew there wasn't any fight left, but something strange happened. Instead of the fractal code appearing, and the digimon reverting into his digi-egg form, he just flickered and faded out.

Takuya thought it was weird and made a note to mention it later. For now, his attention turned to Kari and Gatomon. He walked over to them, and offered a hand for the chosen of light.

Kari took the gantleted hand, hoping the contact with fire wouldn't burn her. It surprised her to find the metal still warm but not burning hot. She looked into the warrior's bright blue eyes and remembered what she prayed for.

A knight in shining armour. She couldn't help but smile when she remembered that as she was helped to her feet. She was still unsteady and tired but she was upright. When she let go, she was uneasy and used Takuya's shoulder for support.

"Thanks." Kari said to her warrior.

"Don't mention it."

* * *

It was a fight that mirrored TK's nightmares. Angemon started off strong, his 'Hand of Fate' proving to be a strong advantage but soon, Angemon was taking punches. One fist hit a mark, and Angemon was on the ground, Devimon standing over him. He picked up the digital angel and held him out as far as one arm could, his other hand open and aimed at Angemon's chest.

"Angemon! You can't give up!" TK yelled.

"Time to finish this." Devimon announced. "Death h…"

"Shadow Lance!"

The spear of conviction slammed into Devimon's fist, forcing him to release the angel digimon who collapsed on the ground unceremoniously. Angemon looked up to see the digimon that intervened with his demise. A humanoid shape stood stedfast in the wind, coated in armour with lions heads as the main theme. Champion of true, untainted, unbiased darkness. Loweemon.

But both of them knew this warrior by a different name.

"Koichi?" TK said unsure of what he was seeing. The lion warrior turned to the blond, red eyes meeting the boy's baby blues. The powers of darkness were always the constant enemy in his life and now, his best friend, welding the powers he hated so much stood between Angemon and Devimon.

Koichi turned back to his enemy, who was just smiling. "What kind of self respecting creature of darkness comes to the aide of an angel?"

"The kind you'll never understand Devimon."

"Do I know you?"

"No. But I know you." Loweemon said. "You caused my friend unending pain. You dwell in his nightmares. You prey on his fears. You fuel his hate and warp his view of the world. You won't cause my friends anymore pain." He rushed at Devimon with his spear. Devimon tried to deflect the spear but it came too fast, and hit him hard.

TK watched as the two fought it out, but not really paying attention, only going over the events that just occurred, and that facts that he had already learnt. Darkness and Light, both complete opposites, but if they were natural enemies, what did that make Koichi?

He shock his head. Koichi isn't the enemy. He had to be the exception.

"Death Hand!" A bolt of dark energy shot at Loweemon, trying to take the warrior out, only he got out of the way, jumping back and powering up his own attack.

"Shadow meteor." Darkness gathered in the central lion head's mouth, only to be shot as golden light at the fallen angel digimon. Devimon felt the attack burn like fire… The true powers of darkness.

"Death Claw!" Devimon came at Loweemon, his claws managing to piece the joints in his armour. Koichi screamed in pain.

"Koichi!" TK yelled as Koichi twisted towards TK, raised his spear… and with one enrage cry, turned the spear held arm at Devimon's wrist and jabbed at it. Devimon's claw recoiled in pain as Koichi fell to the ground, his convictions obviously more powerful then Devimon's will.

"Enough of this!" Devimon shouted. "Death…"

"Hand of Fate!" A beam of energy went though Devimon's chest. The fallen angel flickered and faded out. Angemon then de-digivolved into a worn out Patamon. Koichi got to his feet, walked over to the rookie digimon, picked him up and walked over to TK.

He in turn took the passed out digimon into his arms who then moaned with "Did I get him TK?"

"You sure did Patamon." TK assured him before looking up at the warrior of darkness.

For the first time since this revelation, he smiled. An honest smile that Koichi hadn't seen in what felt like forever. Even if he still felt that the powers of darkness were the source of all his problems, at the end of the day, Koichi was still his friend, and in his hands, the powers of darkness were used for the right reasons. Too bad it took Devimon for him to realise that.

* * *

"This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. This is bad." Clair repeated. It wasn't hard for Davis to tell that her confident and stalwart demeanour was cracking as the two moved though the village. "What else could go wrong today?"

They heard a crash.

"Greymon!"

"Sorry."

"Tai!" Davis called out. There he was, the boy he looked up to. His mentor. His friend. Tai Kamiya. "Hey! Over here!"

"You know them?" Clair asked.

"Davis!" Came Tai's voice, a relief to Davis since he wasn't sure if he was real or not."

"Yes you do." Clair answered as the bushy haired boy and the large orange dinosaur came closer. A smile appeared on the girl's face.

"Davis! Have you seen Kari?" Tai asked right off the bat before noticing the alien girl. "And who and what is that?"

"Stars above. You are magnificent." Clair said to Greymon walking up to champion level digimon.

"Uh. Thanks." Greymon said. The girl was taken aback by his ability to talk.

"Stars above! It talks!" She said almost a panic before regaining her composure. "Where are my manners? Sorry. Professor Clair Weli'sol. And I take no offence if you can't remember it. And you would be?"

"I'm Greymon."

"Greymon? Curious name." She walked around the dinosaur. "You appear closely related to the Ceratosaurus from the looks of your hardened cranial skin and horns. Stop me if you begin to feel uncomfortable." She continued to circle around, stepping over his tail with care. "The 'Horned lizard' isn't an intelligent creature back on Prehistoric Terra, and your colours are… odd to say the least. And your eyes. They do have that spark of intelligence. Not to mention your personality classes with your appearance." She stopped, and looked at the older google head. "And you must be Tai. Soccer player, striker I would imagine."

"Yeah. I guess Davis talked about me."

"Hardly a word." She admitted.

"Tai." Greymon said suddenly. "We need to go."

"Go?" She turned to Greymon then back to Tai. "Go where? We're in the middle of a Time Fissure. It needs to be fixed before something… well… something very… not so nice happens."

"You know about Time Fissures?" Tai asked.

"Yes. Do you?" Clair asked in turned.

"He's right. We need to go." Tai said leading the girl, dinosaur and boy towards the meeting place. Davis moaned.

"Now my head hurts. Can someone please explain to me what's going on!"

* * *

He could now well and truly say the camera was broken. After several attempts at getting the preview working on a crack screen and possibly flat battery, Matt was ready to give up. The only reason he didn't throw the camera away was because the data might still have survived what ever trauma the camera had suffered. He sighed and leaned back onto Garurumon who was lying behind him, both of them waiting for their friends to arrive.

"Matt!" He heard Blake call out as he climbed the stairs and got to the teenage rockstar.

"Didn't find anyone?" Matt asked glumly.

"I found someone, but he couldn't stick around." Blake answered as Agumon caught up to the human. He then stopped to catch his breath.

"I didn't know humans could run so fast." Agumon huffed.

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to know how much does a sentient hologram to the future cost per minute?" Blake asked Matt while Agumon took shallow breaths.

"Uh…" Matt was caught off guard until he heard someone call out. And to his relief…

"Matt!" It was his little brother. He couldn't get to his feet fast enough, going into overprotective big brother mode.

"Are you okay?" He asked running to his brother. He could clearly see some bruises forming on his brother's skin, and Patamon was limp in his arms.

"Well, if it wasn't for Koichi, I would be subject to what ever Devimon had for me." TK explained. Matt looked up to the warrior of darkness, both relieved and grateful. He was about to express it when another voice interrupted him.

"I mean, all of this is data, represented as matter and energy. It's a fantastic research opportunity if we live long enough to actuarially study it." A girl's voice, but it's owner wasn't human. Blake on the other hand found the gold skinned alien girl very familiar.

"I knew that explosion could only be your handy work Clair Weli'sol." Blake scolded the girl.

"And only you would know." The girl, Clair returned before she leaned into Agumon. Blake turned to Tai , Greymon and Davis who were with her.

"Sorry about her, she gets all excited about new discoveries." Blake told them. "She talked my ear off once about how a tropical fungi could be used to treat the Terran Flu."

"Wait. She was still taking?" Davis asked surprised. Tai just laughed.

"It's okay. At least she dumbed it down for those who couldn't understand big words." Tai assured him. "Hang around Izzy for a while, you learn a few big words anyway. I think they might just get along."

"What was your first clue?" Matt asked.

"Oh. I know." Clair said excitedly, turning away from Agumon. "Love of natural sciences." Blake leaned into Matt's ear and whispered something. It made him moan.

"No one's found Kari yet?" Tai asked.

"I have." Blake answered as he pointed down a walk way where Takuya and Kari were walking up, Gatomon was standing on one of the warrior of flame's shoulders while Kari was being help towards the others. The flash of pain on her face told Tai that something must have happened to her sister.

"Tai!" She called out as her brother ran up to her.

"What happened?" Tai demanded.

"She twisted her ankle while she was running from a corrupted Leomon." Gatomon explained for her. "But something strange happened when Takuya defeated it."

"It just sorta faded out." Takuya described. "Like it wasn't even there."

"Then it was probably an echo of the real thing." Blake explained.

"You sure you're okay?" Tai pressed again.

"Thanks to Takuya." Kari answered.

"Then all we're missing is Jamie and Veemon." Matt informed them.

"She'll be easy to find." Clair nodded up to the mountain and the control spire on the peak.

"Then we better get going." Takuya said, and everyone groaned inwardly, but said nothing.

* * *

"Great. The weatherman was wrong about there being no snow." Davis complained, shivering. Everyone else put up with it, other then Takuya and Kari who had the benefit of Takuya's element, Garurumon who had a warm fur coat and Gatomon who had the combination of both.

Clair held her computer up to the spire, noting the readings. She pointed to it. "The source of our problems. Some sort of dimension ripple effect suddenly taken a turn for the worse."

"Hey look." Agumon pointed to a mound in the snow. "They look like snowmen." The orange digimon ran up to the figures, and tripped over something, running into the figure of snow… only to find, it wasn't completely made of snow. His claw rubbed off some snow and under it was a Gazimon, frozen in place.

Kari gasped at the sight. Everyone was horrified. Did they freeze to death? Clair on the other hand walked up to the figure and looked it in the eyes.

"They're fine." She said simply. "They're not dead. Just frozen… in time." She added to elaborate, given how cold it was.

"Anything to do with the dimension ripple?" TK asked.

"Everything actuarially." She answered, looking at the Gazimon's collars. "These things are the cause, connected to the spire some how.

"Veemon!" Davis yelled in horror. Everyone gathered around the blue reptile, frozen in mid air as he was hist against the spire, as it cracked.

"And we have our cause." Clair noted. "The diminutional fissure is cause by this spire braking and the arcane energy leaking into the physical space."

"Then how do we fix it?" Davis demanded, not wanting to leave his partner like this any longer.

"Blake's area of expertise." She pointed out as Blake kneeled by Veemon.

"Well?" Davis said. Blake smiled. The kind of smile that told a mother that her child was up to no good. He made a gesture with the index fingers of both hands, roaring them in an anti-clockwise motion. As he did, Veemon was push forwards and the spire built itself, cracks disappearing. There was a purple flash, and the snow vanished, and everyone's ears were filled with screaming.

When everything went into play, a Gazimon began to rush at Veemon, but he was intercepted by Koichi who was now just there.

All the Gazimon was now confused by how their hostages suddenly vanished, and now there were four champion digimon standing over them. And now the control spire in the area was now glowing a bright white as it was being reconfigured. It stopped glowing as Jamie's screams went from crescendo to al niente. The spire was left a marble white as the aura of foreboding and domination lifted completely and the collars around the Gazimon's necks shattered and broke off.

All of them, now released from their dark rings, were in some state of confusion. One dark ring remained however, on the head of a sun elf who began to wake from a very disturbing dream.

* * *

Yolei was almost blinded by a flash of light. Her vision was taking a while to clear but as it did, she noticed voices of the confused Gazimon around her, and the shape of a large marble spire towering over her, a beacon of hope and liberty.

"Yolei!" She jumped at Cody's voice next to her. "Are you okay Yolei?"

"I found her glasses!" Came Armadillomon's voice.

"Pass them here." Hawkmon ordered. Yolei's vision suddenly cleared, when her glasses were stuck loftily on her nose. She saw Cody standing over her, offering a hand.

"Thanks guys." Yolei said to him and the two digimon, while asking herself how Cody recovered quickly.

"Come on. The others are waiting." Cody reminded them as he helped Yolei to her feet.

On the other side of the spire, Yolei found a strange soccer game going on where Tai and Davis were trying to kick the ball past Koichi in his digimon form, while he and Takuya were trying to get it past Davis. TK and Kari watched the game unfold from the sidelines with both Agumon, Gabumon, Veemon, and Gatomon. Patamon was dosing in TK's arms.

And there was a strange alien woman, talking to someone on a tablet. Izzy by the sounds of it. They were having a very animated discussion.

"Kanabra shoots." Takuya kicked the ball towards Davis who dived at the ball… and missed. "He scores!"

"Aww man. No fair." Davis companied.

"And that's why no one's keeping score." Takuya reminded him much to the chuckles of Tai and Koichi. The girl looked away from her tablet and walked over to the game.

"I'm done here." She told Tai. "Your friend Izzy thinks that the spire has been reversed and now repels dark rings. Basically, it protects the area. It won't be hard to redo the process, but…" She noticed Yolei. "Hello there."

"Hi." Yolei managed to say as the girl walked up to her. She then did something she didn't expect.

Offer a hand.

"Clair Weli'sol."

"Yolei. It's nice to meet you… I think." Yolei replied unsure what to think. "One of Blake's friends?" She asked Tai.

"Oh yeah." Tai informed her as 'Clair' returned to her call. "Izzy will love her."

"I can tell. What's going on?" Yolei asked.

"Just passing time. Matt wanted to talk to Blake alone. Something about being out of our depth." Tai answered as he watched Matt and Blake run up to and pass the two and start calling out to Clair in a tongue that only seemed seemed to understand. There was an exchange between them, Clair showing shock while Blake remained composed.

Then Clair asked a question in Japanese. "Any particular reason you don't want them to know there's been a possible murder of a human?"

Silence fell over the entire area as digimon and digidestine alike processed what they just heard. Even Izzy stopped with his stream of questioning.

"I'll find Koraian and have him run a preliminary autopsy scan." Clair said walking further up the mountain, hanging up on Izzy. "Just make sure Jamie is okay please." She left Blake with some very uncomfortable people, and some uncomfortable questions.

"Before you ask, I was going to tell you." Blake informed them. "Among other things, I just felt it was better to tell Marcus first before anyone else."

"Why tell Boss first?" The darker Agumon asked.

"Because he might be of some relation to him." Matt pointed out. "An uncle, brother maybe. Even his father."


	8. To Fight or Not To Fight

**Chapter Seven: To Fight or Not To Fight**

She was getting too used to this. But never the less, it was her job. A murder of an inter diminutional nature fell under their purview regardless. She was lucky that the boy had the foresight to take the camera in case the body up and left with most of the echoes that fell out of the Time Fissure. On her wrist, her psychic linked computer flashed with a red light, signalling that it was in decided recording mode. Everything she was looking at, everything she was hearing, and everything she said was packaged, encapsulated and sent to servers across the subspace.

With a snap of latex, she was in the zone.

"This is Professor Clair Weli'sol, four gamma beta nine. Commencing preliminary investigation." She said, the digi-Pilot recording every word clearly. "Evidence cross contaminated due to pervious Time Fissure event, so all we have is the body and anything with it. A camera was recovered before arrival by a civilian, still awaiting examination of said camera. The victim appears to be mid to late thirties, has recently travelled or was in the middle of a lengthy journey judging by the outfit, pack and tan."

Clair knelled beside the body, noticing his hands. "You're a fellow scientist too. And a fighter. You were looking for something weren't you." She told the dead. "What ever it was, someone killed you before you found it. Who ever you are, I don't know your name now, but soon, it will be recorded in history books, and remembered long after your killer rots away and you've taken your sweet time Gordisi." She directed that last part to the hulking humanoid reptile, a relative to a tyrannosaurus, that walked up behind her.

"Talking to the dead again?" He asked.

"They're good company." Clair answered. "Besides, he's all we have. Let's get him out of here and our work can begin. Transport as is."

Koraian Gordisi produced a large blue plastic bag from his pack and laid it out flat. Koraian took the man's shoulders while Clair took him by the ankles. Both of them lifted the man and lied him inside the plastic coffin.

"Careful with him. Give him the VIDB treatment." Clair ordered.

"No problem." Koraian nodded before lifting the bad up over his shoulders. The two began to walk to the outskirts of the small town and down stream.

* * *

The clicking of his lighter persisted as the blonde haired man looked out the window, out over the city of Tokyo, watching as the city went about it's life unaware of the threat to the natural order that lies just out of reach. They all knew it, but they believed it was just some children's game… and if they all knew… There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." He called, placing the lighter on the desk. A brunet haired man walked in, wearing a cheep three piece suit and sunglasses. He removed them to reveal brown eyes. "Kanbara. You wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Yamaki Sir. It's about what we're doing to protect the people from those…" the man struggled to find the word. "Wild ones."

The blonde man huffed, expecting this. He knew that Shinya Kanbara was harmed by a wild one yesterday, their first causality caused by a wild one since they knew of the existence of the digital plain. As of yet, he wasn't sure why Shinya was attacked, he hadn't ruled out the idea that the wild one was targeting the Kanbara's youngest family member because of the father's commitment to their cause, but he also thought it unlikely too.

"I'm sorry to hear about what happened Kanbara. But as you know, we are limited with how we can contain these wild ones." Yamaki answered turning to the man. "For the moment. And events such as the Obiada Fog Incident, and the disturbance in Shibuya could have lead to causalities but I assure you, we will stop them from bio-emerging altogether."

"Isn't that the same thing you told the Chief Cabinet Secretary last week?" Kanbara asked, not exactly confident with what he was told.

"And he sets the limitations of our organisation." Yamaki turned back to the window in thought. "If you need time off for your son Kanbara, I will approve it."

"It's fine sir. I'm just concerned someone might die if we don't stop them."

"Go home Kanbara. There's little more you can do." Hiroaki left without another word but another entered the office. A woman with red hair. "Well Riley?"

"There was no sign of Raptor One Sir." She told him. Yamaki closed his lighter and gripped it tightly. Raptor One was in their possession for ten years and now… now he was gone. Lost from their grasp.

"How could have allowed that to happen!?" He snapped. Riley flinched but regained her composure.

"It wasn't my fault sir. Someone locked me out of access in the area I was looking in." She shot back. "They wouldn't let me access the area's data streams. Said it was above our pay grades."

"Who?!"

"A Commander General Homer Yushima. But all I got out of him was that he worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My contacts at the Diet backed up his story but couldn't say what he did with any certainty."

"Just great. I'll contact the Chief Secretary Cabinet, see if he can't clear this up."

Riley nodded and returned to her station while Yamaki returned to his lighter. First Raptor One now this. They better find that creature before it causes another incident like that at Hikarigaoka.

* * *

"What the hell did you get my brother into Minamoto!?"

Koji stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Yukata Himi's voice. He turned to see the brown haired fourteen year old standing behind him, red faced.

"Yukata? What now?"

"Don't what now me Minamoto! Answer me! While your at it, why don't you tell me what Koichi and Takuya are doing in Yokohama!"

This stuck Koji as both odd and worrying. He managed to keep his cool and aloof outside while on the inside, he questioned just how he could know that. "Yokohama? Look Himi, that falls under the category of none of your business."

"It is when you're having my brother pass of a live freaky rabbit as a stuffed animal!" Yukata yelled. Koji gulped but otherwise, didn't crack, until it occurred to him that he and the verbal exchange was now the centre of attention. Not his place in the world. But it was Takuya's. Briefly, he knew what he needed to do.

Start laughing, loud and hard. All it took was remembering the old Takuya's antics. A few of his own too. As he wiped away a tear, he reminded himself how much he changed, along with Takuya, Zoe, JP, Koichi and Tommy most of all.

"You do know how crazy that sound Yukata. You sure you weren't asleep or something? Liston Yukata, you really need to see someone about that problem of yours. It's okay if you don't want to admit it's a problem, but you need to stop, for your family." Koji then walked off yelling back "And stop blaming poor Tommy for your friend's death."

The warrior of light let out a breath of relief before biting his lip. That display meant he couldn't follow Rika any further. And then there's the little matter of him knowing Takuya and Koichi were in Yokohama. Something he needed to talk to Tommy about. And soon. If Yukata is so insistent on following them, he was going to get hurt, either by the digimon they fight, or the allies they fight with. Or worse, Tommy himself.

* * *

"What did she mean murder?" Joe demanded Joey. Now the attention was on him.

"Obviously what it sounds like." Joey answered. "Murder. As in cold blooded. Something along those lines. Sounds like he wasn't a digidestine either but my universal translator software has some bugs, and it works better when the language is preselected. Beta release."

"So you're not speaking Japanese?"

"Well, I am, the psychic link tech just takes what I'm about to say, and resubmits it as Japanese. Same with what I see and hear but in reverse. Japanese in becomes english in my head, unless it was actuarially english to begin with."

"May I see?" Izzy asked. Joey showed him the wrist mounted computer. Wasn't much to look at, just a small watch with a square, inch by inch screen, showing the time, date and location of the watch, and the user. Izzy couldn't help but notice the top bar of the watch had a service strength bar in the left hand side, and what looked roughly like two rings joined together.

He was broken out of his examination when he heard Sora call out.

"We're back!"

"We even brought peanut butter and brownies!" Takato added, both carrying bags of bread and baked sweets.

* * *

It disturbed Blake to see how unfocused Jamie was, jittery and on edge. He figured it was something she encountered when she put that black ring on her own head. He looked up at the white spire that had taken the place of a thing of oppression, wondering what was behind it's design. It was just too perfect to be designed by a kid on a power trip.

"Blake?" Jamie moaned as he knelled over her, eyes still closed.

"Okay?" Blake asked.

"Sensory overload." She muttered. "Feels like the time I crossed the scar into your world. Not my finest moment. I need to sleep."

"Clair says that Glenn has set up a base down stream. I have your notes. Between Joey, Izzy, Yolei, JP and I think Henry, they might be able to set up a conversion program." Blake reassured him.

"No. Wait." Jamie protested. "Something is coming… It's in the fissure. It's everywhere."

"Jamie. You're not making any sense."

She shocked her head. "Take Clair with you back to Tokyo. Help me up." She asked. Blake did so, pulling up to her feet. She then pulled off her shoes asking "Down stream?"

"It's not far from where we entered the digital world, we'll take you." Blake assured her.

"No. It is okay." Jamie reassured her student. "There is more then one way to see as I am sure you are aware after your encounter with a gorgon."

Blake shivered involuntary. Greek mythology did those creatures no justice. Athena's curse did little to their ambition, creating the loneliest creatures in creation, not to mention the cruellest.

"Come. Let us go." Jamie insisted, eyes still closed, bare foot and walking towards the small group, gathered around Koichi's digi-vice witch was displaying a holographic globe of the digital world.

"Looks like the same digital world we left behind." Tai commented as he pointed to an island off the coast of the eastern continent. "That's File Island alright."

In protest, Takuya pointed out the landmass at the bottom of the globe. "Yeah, but I don't remember that being there. And there were only two land masses."

"And what are these dots on the eastern continent." Yolei asked, pointing to the landmass in question.

"She should be asking what the white dot is doing there?" Jamie said, drawing attention to herself. "And Davis, your shoelaces are untied. Gabumon, step to your left."

Davis looked down. His left shoelace was indeed untied and instead of stepping to his left, a bucket of water was dumped over him by a giggling pair of gazimon running off.

"Hey! My fur is dry clean only!" Gabumon yelled at them.

"How'd she know that?" Davis asked as he tied the lose laces up.

"Aura Sense. Like a mana powered radar." Blake explained. "Speaking of, press and hold both the buttons under the screen."

Koichi did. The dots expanded into grey half circles, with the exception of the white one that only had an outline of white. To Kari's horror, the grey half circles covered a good half of the eastern continent. What surprised her was the white outline that overlapped with a grey half circle. Only the grey shading was gone.

"If I know my landmarks, we're standing right on that hill." Tai pointed out.

"Then this must be a map of control and liberation spires." Agumon added.

"Liberation?"

"What would you call it?"

Tai shrugged not knowing what else to call it.

"Look at this." Matt pointed out missing chunk in the half circle. "It looks like the liberation spire cancels out the effects of the control spire."

"I see how it works." Yolei pointed out. "The digimon emperor must have set up the control spire to send out power to the black rings in the area. But with this spire, the energy is destroying black rings. I wonder if the control spire energy has another effects."

"Like preventing digimon from Digi-volving normally?" TK put forward.

"I don't think that's all." Blake muttered. "The control spire was also drawing power from Jamie, causing the spire to overload. A time fissure wouldn't have opened if the spire didn't have any diminutional altering effects. How else would Jamie have sent a text to Matt with TK's mobile phone if there's no service in the digital world?"

"That is a good point." Tai noted. "We should get this information to Izzy right away."

"Yolei should do it. And take the new Agumon with you dear." Blake asked. "I need to satisfy my rabid curiosity over something."

"What about?" Yolei asked as the group began walking down the mountainside.

"I'll tell you once I understand it myself. Along with the other things I don't understand. Top of the list, Takari."

"Taka-what?" Davis asked.

"You know. Takuya. Kari." He pointed out the half sleepy Kari leaning the warrior of flame's armoured shoulder. Takuya, Tai and Davis both turned to Blake with similar looks of shock on their faces. "What?!"

Yolei and Koichi chuckled while Jamie shock her head while they, like everyone else kept walking.

"Seriously. I think she's sweet on you." Blake said as he walked away with as the google head's shock wore off..

"What makes you say that?" Takuya asked.

"Lets just say I've been in that place once before. It's the same story every time and it begins the same way."

"You slipped Gatomon's tail ring in my pocket didn't you." Takuya accused. Tai turned on the dimension jumper, red with anger.

"I don't know what your talking about." Blake defected smiling, either completely oblivious to the older boy's disapproval, or he didn't care that he was glaring daggers at him.

"What does he have that I don't?!" Davis demanded. Blake laughed.

"Not a dream to open a noodle cart. That's for sure. Considering his cooking skills, not bad but not exceptional either." Blake told Davis. The boy was stunned. "Speaking of, If Yolei is going straight back to Shinjuku, then someone needs to take her return ticket. Marcus' too."

"Why Marcus?" Takuya asked, uncomfortable with Tai's glare, until they both realised what Marcus needed to do… No one should be in that situation.

"Hey Tai! If there's another control spire near here, then shouldn't we take it out at least?" Davis asked. "One less control spire…"

"Means one less he can use against innocence digimon." Takuya finished. "Think Veemon is up to it?"

"What do you say Veemon?" Davis asked his partner. He nodded encouragingly.

"Tomorrow." Tai told them. "It's getting late. Lets get home." To be honest, he was tired,

The walk back to the TV set didn't take long, twelve minutes at least. When they made it to the beach, they saw a familiar looking girl leaning against the TV set that sat on the rock on the shore, the white hair stood out but her skin colour made it hard for them to place her outside polynesia. Jamie kept walking to the concern of Koichi as she was walking with her eyes closed, but given what he saw of the girl, he didn't voice his concerns.

The strange girl looked at the approaching group with deep blue eyes. "Ready to go?"

Everyone stopped when they placed the voice. "No way. Clair?" Yolei was the first to ask. "You look… human."

"Holographic projector and a pair of colour contacts." She answered. "Easier and faster then growing an avatar, and a lot less painful then changing your skin pigment. Anyway." She pointed to the set. "How does that work?"

"Here." Davis walked up to the set and started adjusting nobs until the image of Takato, Guilmon, Sora, Izzy and Tentomon came into focus.

"…my parents owned a bakery." They heard some one say, Tommy maybe.

"Molto buona, delizioso." That had to be Zoe.

"You should try the cream puffs." Takato suggested.

"This is the best thing I ever tasted." Izzy announced.

"I agree." Tentomon added. "Though would it have killed your parents to put in nuts."

"Hey Izzy, what does it mean when the light on that thing goes on?" Zoe asked.

"What thing?"

"That thing on your laptop. The digiport I think. I just saw the light go on." Zoe's head applied in the screen briefly just in time for Davis to block their sight of it.

"Hey! Guys! Let me in! It's Davis!" All of a sudden, he, along with Yolei, Cody, Veemon, Armadillomon, Hawkmon and one Agumon were swallowed by a bright light and sucked into the screen.

"You don't see that everyday." the other Agumon commented as they heard them crash though the digiport and into the group on the other side.

"Get off! You're crushing my brownies!" They heard Izzy yell before the screen turned off.

"Sounds like a rough trip." Clair noted. "Glad I'm taking dimension jumping tech."

"Thanks for rubbing it in." Matt sighed as he twisted the knob. "See you on the otherside."

* * *

When the light cleared, everyone was piled up, humans, digimon and hybrids alike. At the bottom of the pile up was Marcus.

"You guys weren't gone long." Henry said as he picked up the laptop that fell out of Marcus' grip when the group spilt out.

"Gee, couldn't you guys wait in line?"

"Are we going to have to go though this every time we come back from the digital world?" Kari asked as she picked herself up from the top of the pile.

"And I thought beast sprit evolving was painful work." Takuya added.

"Can we hurry this up?" Blake asked. "Someone's foot is in my eye."

"Sorry." Matt apologised as he was helped up by Kari.

"What the hell was that?" Marcus demanded as he got up, noticing Cody, TK and Kari. "Who's the kids? And what happened to blondey over there?"

"Blondey has a name." TK shot at him.

"Matt's little brother." Tai introduced. "And as for what happened. He kind of ran into an old enemy of ours."

"Don't ask." TK told them.

"Or do, it's completely up to you." Came Clair's voice from behind Marcus. Everyone jumped, unaware that she faded into reality.

"Sneak up on people much?" Terriormon demanded.

"Where the hell did you come from Lady?" Marcus demanded the smiling woman in the windbraker.

"Nowhere. You must be Marcus Damon. I'm sorry to have to be here." Her smile vanished quicker then she applied.

"Why?"

"Has anyone been missing in your family?" She asked. "Father, Un…"

"My dad." Marcus answered. "How'd you…"

"I wish I didn't. Give your return ticket to blondie. You're coming with me. I'm Clair Weli'sol by the way."

* * *

"Ah. What happened to you guys?" Koji asked as he found the group piled up in the park.

"Please don't ask." Was the unanimous response.

"Fine. Where's Tommy?"

There was a muffled shout coming from under passed out Guilmon. It took Takato, JP, Koji, Joey and Armadillomon to shift the large sprawled out reptile off the youngest warrior. He sprung upright, filling his starved lungs with precious air.

"How many Peanut Butter sandwiches did he have?" Tommy demanded, looking for his hat.

"Don't know. I lost count after twelve." Takato admitted, hoping that the boy didn't sustain any serious injuries since Joe left after a quick dinner, needing to get well rested for a test. "He just kept eating."

"Dude. How'd even get under there?" Davis asked.

"All I heard was Guilmon growling and… I don't know." Tommy admitted. "Something wrong Koji, you looked panicked?"

"Your brother has crossed a real line. Some how, he knew Takuya and Koichi were in Yokohama." Koji explained. "Only way he could know that is that either someone told him… With with the slack jaw JP?"

JP closed his mouth, well aware of an explanation. "Remember the earthquake last week when we… the six of us were at my place. Yukuta came and Aunt Maple insisted that you guys stay the night… And we all left our phones on the coffee table for the night…"

"And that means Yukuta could have installed spyware on your phones." Joey finished. "All he'd need is access to the device and a computer."

"His tablet. He used to go everywhere with that thing." Tommy huffed.

"Why would he do something so underhanded?" Biyomon asked as she finished straightening her feathers.

"He just worries for his little brother." Zoe answered. "I don't know why but he really doesn't trust us."

"JP. I'll need your phone." Izzy asked, holding out his hand. The brown haired boy gave him the device. Izzy saw the home screen photo, a selfie of JP and Zoe. Ignoring that, he took a cable from his laptop bag, and connected phone to laptop.

"One thing Izzy." Yolei said as the computer expert was working. She began to talk and everyone listened to what she had to say.

* * *

"Sir. I've located the fugitive Agumon and the accomplices." Miki Kurosaki announced. "They were spotted by a camera braking into the Maine Tower and disabling the security system."

"Facal Recognition has identified one of the accomplices." Megumi Shirakawa added. "Marcus Damon, fourteen years old, Shinjuku Junior High school, grade nine."

"Interesting. Spencer's boy." Sampson said looking at the school ID photo.

"The other boy is Blake Nightingale. An Australian Citizen out of Sydney." Megumi added as the photo from a passport appeared on the other screen. "Sir. I can't find any record of him entering the country."

"They're not alone sir." Miki announced as the video feed paused on two boys entering the tower. Both were wearing googles, the older one was wearing a green high school uniform, but the other was in more casual attire.

"Identities confirmed. Taichi Kamiya and Takuya Kanbara." Megumi announced. Both Sampson and Kudamon raised an eyebrow. "I'm getting a digital signature from the Kanbara boy. It doesn't match anything in our databanks."

"One of the Digidestine in Yokohama?" Sampson questioned, well aware of the digidestine's involvement in the Obadia Fog Incident, and the battle with Diaboromon. Those were headaches for DATS agents the world over. "This can't be good."

"And the host of the legendary warrior Agunimon right on our doorstep." Kudamon added. "I don't know if I should be honoured or worried."

"We have another one." Miki called out, a blond haired boy walking in, wearing the same green uniform as Tai. "Isn't that the lead singer for Teenage Wolves?"

"Yep. Yamato Ishida. His concert went viral just an hour ago. Tweets are coming in from all over the world." Megumi told her.

"Think Sampson will let us get his autograph?" Miki asked before turning back to the screen. "Three more." She pointed out three kids, two boys and a girl. Kudamon's eyes widened at the sight of a Terrormon hanging from the chinese boy's neck.

"Names Yolei Inoue, Koichi Kimora and Henry Wong. System's definitely malfunctioning." Megumi announced. "Says that the Kimora kid has a digital signature."

"That settles it." Kudamon announced. "The legendary warriors have returned to their human partners. They know something is going on."

Sampson nodded. "And with two digidestine with them, we can only assume their working with them. What to the other two have to do with it?" He pointed to Yolei and Henry's school IDs. "Megumi. Keep working on Nightingale, something about him doesn't seem right."

"I'm contacting our operations in Melbourne now sir." Megumi responded.

"Hold on. It looks like they're leaving." Miki announced as the video feed showed Tai leading Matt, Koichi, Henry, Blake and Takuya out, along with two new faces. "I don't remember seeing them enter the building."

The new faces were about the same age as each other, a boy and a girl. One was blonde, wearing a white hat, covered with bruises, the other, a brown haired girl, walking with a twisted ankle, using Takuya to help her walk.

"They are Takeru Takaishi and Hikari Kamiya." Megumi noted as their Obadia Middle School IDs appeared. "Both in the same grade. Takeru is the younger brother of Yamato Ishida. And Hikari is the younger sister of Taichi Kamiya."

"What happened to the lavender haired girl and the brown haired boy?" Miki demand.

"More importantly, what happened to the fugitive Agumon?" Sampson corrected.

"They have return tickets. From Yokohama Station to Shibuya Station. They seem to split up from there." Megami announced.

"Send Yoshino." Sampson demanded.

"What are you thinking Sampson?" Kudamon asked.

"I'm not sure what to make of it yet." Sampson informed his partner.

"Commander. They've reactivated security." Miki informed her superior. "I've already accessed cameras inside. Both Marcus Damon and the fugitive aren't in sight."

Sampson shock his head. "It's possible that they have the means to access the digital world, they must have used the building as cover. It's possible they sent the fugitive back."

"But why send the boy with him?" Kudamon asked, not expecting an answer. Megumi spoke up.

"Sir. I found something relating to the name Blake Nightingale, but the file classified, above top secret." She informed them.

"Sir. They've boarded a train bound for Tokyo." Miki informed them.

"Recall Yoshino to base."

"Yes Sir."

* * *

It was times like these Clair Weli'sol wished things were different. As a scientist, she didn't believe in an invisible hand of fate, just that destiny was the path people created for themselves, but in her less ideal moments, she'd like to believe that some cosmic force saw the bigger picture, and that every action was for a reason.

How can she tell someone that a loved one would not be walking though the door? It didn't get any easier. It was normally her that gave those left behind the bad news. It was because she didn't want her friends to feel anymore pain then what they already saw or felt. Everyday, they knew the responsibilities they had and the duties they needed to undertake. It wasn't because there was no one else to do it, but was because it was their place, even if they were just teenagers, this was their life.

They wouldn't have it any other way.

She had just left Marcus alone with the remains of his father, Spenser Damon. She had just updated the case file, had the evidence sent to her mobile lab. There wasn't much that wan't contaminated by the fissure. Just a bullet and what little he had with him, witch included a photo of his family and a strange device. She looked down at her coffee, lit by the LED lights in their small camp, under the three moons of the digital world, and thought about the promise she made to the man.

"You know, it's just going to get cold if you keep staring at it." She heard a voice, a deep, growl lined voice. Clair let a slight hint of a smile seep into her depressed expression before turning to see the seven foot tall werewolf teenager, black fur and lean muscle with those adorable puppy dog amber eyes she loved so much.

"It's nice to see you too Glenn." She said, noting the outfit, and towel, and the bottle of water in his paw, and the fact that Koraian wasn't in the make shift morgue, soon to be turned back into a sick bay. She was surprised to see that he wasn't panting. Probably not an…

She shock away her train of thought. It was hard to get out of the zone once she was in it. It was a habit of hers, sometimes running days and often resulting in her missing meals and countless hours of sleep.

"You look like someone kicked your puppy." Glenn noted taking a seat next to the alien teenager. She sighed and looked away.

"It's the work. That's all. I have to take the good with the bad. And hope the good is enough to drown out the worst."

"I hear you. Did you manage to settle that aether event?"

"I'm here aren't I?" The wolf just snorted in amusement before taking a mouth full of his water. "I need to go. I've got to get the prelims from the lab, I have to escort a young man home, and I'm in the middle of a good book."

"Should I be jealous?" Glenn asked, cracking his knuckles.

"I plan on sleeping with the book in my arms." Clair answered.

"Must be a lucky book." Glenn chuckled as Clair walked towards the mobile lab setup. Inside, she found the orange dragon with the multi-species EarPods in his head, music set to max. Heavy metal too. She wouldn't be surprised that her lab assistant (Partner on paper) would be hard of hearing from it. She walked up to the dragon, found his MP3 player, and pressed pause on the holographic screen. The dragon's eyes shot open. His head turned to see the young woman standing over the reptile.

"It's not smart to sneak up on a dragon you know." He growled. Clair's smile just widened.

"I said I was a genius Zane Hydro'morla. Not smart." She reminded him. "And I know for a fact you won't attack me for two reasons." She took the tablet from the bench and skimmed though the generated report. "Nothing special about the bullet. Matter compositions at least tell us the bullet came from the physical plain. No straiten matches in ABFIS, but just means the bullet hasn't been used in a Terran crime we know about. I haven't searched the local ballistic databases. Yet. Huh."

"What?" Zane asked, knowing she was just going to keep taking to herself anyway. He may as well give her someone to talk to instead.

"Bullet passed though something. Some sort of data based organic matter." She answered, smiling. Even if this was a murder, it was all the more incentive to research the world they found themselves in. But for now, she turned on her 'assistant'. "Try not to blow up the place. That's my job." She left the lab assured that it was in good claws.

Lastly, she walked over to the female quarters. Though the atmosphere around the encampment was largely casual, it was mostly to keep their parents from worrying what they're teenage children would get up to left alone, among other things they worried about. Clair and Jamie had the quarters to themselves along with some empty rooms for visiting agents or natives, and extra rooms could be added with ease.

Clair found Jamie, still sleeping in her bed, room a mess with papers and tomes rather then clothes, typical for a mage still tying to come to grips with terran technology. Clair closed the door gently, allowing the sun elf to sleep undisturbed.

She still had to get to Marcus. And she had a lot of work ahead of her.

* * *

"I'm quite impressed with your theory Yolei." Izzy told the lavender haired girl as he continued to type away. "At least this means the area can be held against the digimon emperor and he can't control any digimon there."

"From the sounds of it, the Toucanmon should enjoy the place a lot more then my family's apartment." Zoe noted.

"And the Gutsomon we freed this afternoon." Davis added. "We can send them there first thing in the morning. Then go after more control spires."

Koji sighed and dampened the boy's enthusiasm. "As much as a plan that sounds, we should at least figure out how to use them to our advantage."

"He's right." Yolei nodded as she turned to Joey, who was still flipping though Jamie's notes.

"Well, Jamie does go into detail on what Bokomon told her." Joey assured them. "Programming a virus to infect the spires should do the trick. Just need something to carry the virus."

"Like our digi-vices?" Takato asked.

"Maybe." Izzy noted, taking a moment from typing to inspect his own. "Somehow I don't think we've even scratched the surface of these devices. They're unlike the digi-vices before them." His laptop beeped, Joey and JP looked over the red head's shoulder to see what his laptop managed to find. "Yep. Spyware. Premium stuff too."

"How'd Yukata get his hands on this. It's on par with some state sponsored spyware I've seen." Joey noted.

"I don't know. Just tell me you can get rid of it." JP said, now shaken.

"I can. Easily." Izzy pointed out as he was about to start typing.

"Wait. If we get rid of it, Yutaka will just try an reinstall it. Why get rid of it when we can use it to our advantage?" Joey suggested.

"How?" JP asked.

"Well, first thing's first. You guys need a clean way to communicate without anyone eaves dropping."

"We haven't tried our digi-vices yet." Zoe suggested. "During our trip in the digital world, we were able to communicate with each other though them."

"It's worth a try." Sora said taking her own out of her pocket. She started pressing buttons and talking into the device with little result. "Can anyone hear me? Hello?"

* * *

The train ride to Tokyo went on largely uneventfully. Kari fell asleep, snuggled up to Takuya's side who didn't complain, he just held the digi-metal in his hand, examining it then looked over to Kari's sleeping form. Tai was under his gaze the whole time, he's expression lightened up when he presented the digi-metal of light to him, Matt and Kari. None of them knew what to make of it, or of the story Takuya told them of how he came to find it.

TK and Koichi talked among themselves for most of the journey, mostly comparing adventures. Eventually, it got to a point where Koichi asked TK if he finished Bokomon's book.

"I don't think I will." TK answered, much to Koichi's surprise.

"Why not?" Koichi asked.

"I want to hear the story from you." TK answered. "And I don't want to spoil the ending."

"It can…"

"Can anyone hear me?" They heard a voice interrupt, coming from TK's pocket. "Hello?"

"That sounded like… Sora?" TK said puzzled as he fished in his pocket for his digi-vice… only to find a white and green hand held device instead. On it, Sora's face appeared. "Sora? How are you…"

"TK?" He heard Cody's voice now.

"Prodigious. It works." Izzy's voice this time as the screen swept around before turning to static.

"Guys?" TK questioned. The screened cleared and Sora's face came into view again.

"Guess it's some sort of fail safe." JP's voice concluded.

"Hey! Is Koichi there!" Koji called out.

"I'm here Koji." Koichi reassured him as other's began to turn towards them. But only Blake, Henry, Matt, Tai and Takuya's eyes fell on them. Everyone else seemed to be ignorant of the conversation going on.

"Liston. Don't use your cellphone anymore. Yukata put some tracking software on JP's. Possibly your's and Takuya's."

"What!" Takuya snapped, waking Kari from her sleep.

"It's news to me as well. I just don't want to see his stupidity get him hurt. Or worse." Koji returned before there was a beep and something told them the conversation was at an end.

* * *

"It'll be interesting to see what else those devices feature." Joey said as he stood up.

"Indeed. But I think it might be time we head back. After all, it is a school night." Izzy reminded them.

"Don't remind me." Davis and Takato moaned before they went their separate ways.

"Just one question." Yolei brought up. She pointed out the Agumon sleeping. "Someone needs to make sure he gets to Marcus Damon. He lives somewhere in the Shinjuku area."

"Long brown hair with some of it tied into a tail? Has ambitions of being an ultimate fighter." Tommy piped up. "I live next door to a Damon family."

"It sounds like him." Yolei said. "You sure you can take him?"

Tommy nodded assuringly.

* * *

The cold hit him like a brick when Marcus appeared in Tokyo, the two teenagers faded into reality, standing on the side walk between the house and the road. Clair kept her hand on the boy's slumped shoulder, the only other comfort she could give him other then doing her job and finding the man that took Spenser Damon's life so soon, and for what reason.

"Boss!" They heard Agumon call out. He ran towards them with a boy wearing a big orange hat Clair assumed was one of the digidestine, Tommy.

"Hey Marcus!" They heard the young boy call out. "I didn't know you had a digimon partner."

"I just ran into him today." Marcus told the little boy he had known since he was born. He felt his sprits lift when he saw him, little Tommy Himi. More often then not, he and his sister Kristy would play on the street during those sunny weekend afternoons until recently when he and Kirsty stated drifting apart over the past year, he knew about Yukata's hostility towards his new found friends. He hadn't meet any of them until today, but Takuya seemed like a decent guy. Strange taste in headgear but alright. Probably the reason Tommy started playing soccer.

"Hey. You don't look like an alien." Tommy told the girl next to him.

"And you don't look like a warrior of ice." Clair shot back before turning to Marcus. "I'll let you know if there's any developments. You have my number."

"Considering it's my phone, yeah, I have it." Marcus shot back.

"I'll give it back once I acquire one for myself. Given they're in vending machines all over the city, shouldn't be hard to get my hands on one." Clair assured him as she walked towards where she thought the train station was.

"Tommy!" They heard someone call out.

"You better sneak Agumon inside before my mum sees him." Tommy whispered to Marcus before turning to his house down the road. "Coming mum!" He ran towards the brown haired woman standing on the porch of the house next door.

"Okay Agumon, just try not to make too much noise." Marcus told the orange reptile.

"Right Boss."

* * *

"Okay. So you're telling me that this Rika girl swiped a card though her digi-vice and it altered her some how?" Clair asked looking at the digimon playing card then to the black and gold digi-vice left on the table next to her vegi-burger. Blake sat across from her, snacking on his own fries. It was lunch time in Tokyo, Blake had gotten back to the hotel room only minutes after Clair arrived and started browsing for real-estate, a nice indiscreet warehouse. Once finding what she was looking for, she then moved on to getting a good night's sleep.

The morning consisted mostly of talking, catching up on the various natives Blake had come into contact with, the digi-vice itself, then the card game. It was just like her to drag the boy out of the room and to the nearest shopping district to pick up a starter pack and a number of booster packs. Lunch was now under why and she began trying to theorise the mechanics behind it.

"I've never seen you so excited over a card game. Not since the solitaire incident." Blake pointed out, smirking from the event.

"The solitaire incident?" They heard someone ask. Clair turned to see a teenage girl, with hot pink hair standing behind her.

"Wow. Sorry. You must be Mimi." Clair pointed out. "Can I ask about the hair? Did you wake up one morning and say 'I want to stick out of a crowd like a sore thumb' or do you really like hot pink?"

"Err… who are you again?" Mimi asked as Blake moaned. Clair turned to Blake with a smile on her face.

"Blake. Be a gentlemen and introduce me."

"Mimi. Meet Clair Weli'sol, my go to girl for anything logic related." Blake pointed out. "Also, she has a tendency to speak what ever is on her mind."

"Bubbly personality masking a selfish but generally caring person." Clair said quickly.

"I.E." He pointed out.

"You must know all the best stores." Clair pointed out.

"Well, yeah. I was just having a quick walk though before Zoe gets out of school and we can meet up with Sora, Kari and Yolei." Mimi said, almost boasting. "Where's Jamie by the way. We can have a girl's day out."

"I hate to burst that bubble, but she's been incapacitated for the foreseeable future." Blake informed her. "Doctors orders are to stay away from strenuous activity. And the last person to disobey Doctor Nightingale's orders, needed a second opinion. Actually, why don't you take her with you?" Blake pointed to Clair. "Show her around, get to know her, try and keep her entertained."

"Sure. Not a problem." Mimi said smiling deviously.

"Well, I could use some retail therapy. I've been so jumpy lately." Clair agreed.

"Great. I better find Takato and Tommy." Blake said standing and gathering the leftovers, intending to dispose of them. "The game is afoot."

* * *

"Way to go Kenta. You fell head first right into my trap. Snap." Kazu presented the SkullMeramon card to the board causing the glasses wearing boy to bow his head in defeat. "Come on dude, don't cry. Look up. You gotta see this. I am just that good."

"Your one humble guy Kazu." Takato huffed, watching his friends play cards rather then help clean up the classroom. It was their turn anyway.

"You're a lousy winner." Kenta complained.

"Am not. You're a lousy loser, you hear me loser." Kazu shot back. "Anyway, you'll never get any better until you learn to use modify cards. That's were a real tamer shines and I shine baby. I'm a natural to win the tournament this year."

"Well you have to beat me to do it." Takato defended. putting the broom away.

"You guys are delusional. You're not even in their league Kazu." Kenta reminded them.

"Am too." "Listion up boyo, a girl won it for the last three years in a row." Kazu shot back at his opponent.

"That's not just a girl."

"Yeah, the digimon queen. That's what they call her. Can you believe that. She even lives around here."

"She's going to wipe the floor with your sorry butt."

"Don't think so. She's just never meet her match is all. Wait and see chummily and she'll be begging me for mercy."

"I have to find her!" Takato yelled, interrupting the exchange.

"You have to do what?" Kazu asked, not believing what he just heard.

"Where does she live. I need to find her." Takato repeated.

"Dude… I can't believe what you just said. Did you just say you need a girl? You're out of the club buddy."

"Takato needs a girl?" A voice asked as Takato's classmate approached the group. Jeri Katou, a girl with the shock puppet. Takato's cheeks immediately reddened. "What for? Will I do?"

"Not unless you can beat up the digimon queen." Kenta informed her. "Now that's a battle I'd pay money to see."

"Boys are so weird. What's so great about fighting?" Jeri asked.

"Show's how much you know about being a boy." Kazu told her, leaning back on his chair "It's how we keep score and any way, I've meet plenty of girls who enjoy a good fight."

"I'm sure you have." Jeri smiled only to be called away by her friend. "Lots of them." She ran off, what ever was said was unheard by Takato as he heard a yawn.

"Takatomon? Can I come out now?" Guilmon called from the digi-vice. "I'm hungry."

"Did you guys hear something?" Kenta asked. Takato panicked.

"Hear what guys?!" He asked, hoping playing dumb will get him out of this one.

"Takatomon?" Guilmon called, causing Kazu to fall back.

"Takato!" He heard Tommy call out from the door, the younger boy waiting for his fellow digi-destine.

"Sorry guys, I've gotta go." Takato ran off.

"Hey!" Kazu called from the ground. "You can't leave chummily! I haven't challenged you yet!" Takato didn't hear him. He was already out the door.

* * *

"You've gotta be kidding me Kanbara!" Juurota yelled. "It's like you rather spend time with that jerk then with your own team!"

Takuya turned back to his co-caption, Juurota Katsuki. He was a bigger hot head then most, even shouting at teachers. Behind Takuya, Koji let out a huff. "Can you blame him?"

"Koji!" Takuya cut him off before turning back to Juurota. "Sorry guys. This is important. School work."

"What school work!? I'm in your class Kanbara!" Juurota shot back.

"Just leave it alone Juurota." Takuya told the boy, turning his back and joining Koji.

"I"m surprised you haven't reverted to your old self hanging around guys like that." Koji said out loud. "Kinda reminds me of you when we meet. You haven't told him have you?"

"What? That I went to another dimension? Or that I'm part digimon?" Takuya asked. "I can't see either of those confessions going down well."

"Good point. Come on Kanbara. I'm not going to be late." Koji ran ahead with a shocked Takuya in toe.

* * *

"You sure Izzy?" Yolei asked the red haired computer expert as they stood outside the apartment complex.

"Positive Yolei. Joey and JP will be here soon, and Mimi won't be in Japan for much longer. I would encourage the trip. If you hurry, you should make it to the station before the next train leaves. Or you might have to wait for the next train with Davis."

"Okay. I'll call later and see if there's anything I can help with." Yolei said before heading off. Izzy walked back up to this family apartment, finding Bokomon and Tentomon engaged in a game of chess. Yolei had picked up Bokomon's book from TK, and given it to Izzy to return to Bokomon, resulting in Izzy in passing the time with reading until both of them arrived at the same time.

"Would you boys like something to eat?" Izzy's mum asked. JP spoke up.

"If you're offering, I won't say no." The woman nodded and left them alone as laptops were setup and ad hoc networks were created. "You sure we can do this with just the three of us?"

"Shouldn't be hard." Joey assured him as JP connected his digi-vice to the desktop.

"Okay. Let start by recreating the control spire at it's basic level." Izzy suggested as Joey began to look over the code he was typing. "And careful you two. I've have this code suddenly shift and change on me while I was coding."

"Strange. I'm getting the feeling that I've seen this code somewhere before." Joey observed.

"Checkmate." Bokomon announced.

"Sure about that?" Tentomon said, finding a flaw in the offensive. He pushed his knight. "That's checkmate."

* * *

"Guilmon!" Takato yelled shocked that his partner suddenly appeared beside him, pushing him into a nearby bush. Tommy quickly scan for witness but no one seemed to have noticed. "You scared me. You're crazy boy, you know that. You can't just appear out of thin air like that. There's no telling what might happen to you out here." Takato tried to reason.

"Nothing bad can happen if your right there with me." Guilmon protested.

"I don't know about that Guilmon." Takato said down trodden. "You'd attract an awful lot of attention out here." A thought just came to him. "Hey wait. I have an idea…"

"Yo! Blake!"

Turning to where he heard Davis' voice come from, Blake saw two google head coming towards him down the street. along with the oldest of the yin and yang twins. He stashed the cards in his backpack and addressed the three.

"About time! You kept me waiting." Blake called back.

"Sorry. Train kinda got delayed." Tai reminded him.

"It's fine. We're still waiting on Takuya, Koji, Tommy and Takato." Blake assured.

"What about Henry?"

"Not sure."

"There they are." Koichi pointed out the two running up to them.

"Hey! Everyone here yet?" Takuya asked.

"Almost." Davis answered.

"Hey! Look! Check it out! It's a Digimon!" They heard a little kid call out.

"What!?" Koji turned toward where the voice came from, seeing Takato and Tommy standing with Guilmon, out on the open. "What on earth are they thinking?!"

"Shhh!" Blake hushed him trying to hear what Tommy was saying.

"…for halloween." Tommy finished. "Cool isn't he."

"But I've never seen that one before." The kid said.

"That's because I made him up myself.' Takato explained. "His name is Guilmon."

"Mum! Look at him! What a great costume!" The Kid yelled

"You're going as a scarecrow and you're going to like it." His mother scolded as they walked away. Koji ran up to them now that the mother and child weren't close enough to hear them anymore.

"You couldn't have know that would work." Koji scolded the youngest google head.

"I can't believe it actuarially worked. But he didn't want to go back into the digi-vice." Takato muttered, half in a daze before they were broken out of their thoughts by the digital dinosaur running of. "Guilmon! Where are you going!? You can't run off by yourself!"

Guilmon didn't respond so they did the only thing they could do…

Follow that dinosaur.

"Guilmon!" Koji yelled after him.

"Stop!" Tommy yelled. "Right now!"

The chase continued, Tai, Takuya and Blake in the lead, Koji, Koichi, and Davis close behind, Tommy and Takato falling behind, until they followed the dinosaur into a parking garage. There, Takuya saw a very unwelcome sight.

"You again!" Takuya shouted at the red haired digimon queen.

"Can't get anything past you can I boy." Rika said turning to Takato. "Are you ready to fight this time? Is your little dinosaur out of dippers yet."

Takuya couldn't stand her taunts, not to mention what she was going to make Renamon do to the poor dinosaur, as Agunimon's power began to rush though him. Koji's hand grabbing his shoulder stopped him.

"Don't." He said sharply. "She's not worth it."

"So your the digimon queen." Tai muttered. "Just what's the big idea attacking random digimon?"

"Because that's what digimon do. They fight. When they win, they get stronger. And when they get stronger, they digi-volve." Rika stated bluntly. "You too are just our stepping stones."

"You think getting stronger is how digimon digivolve?" Tai asked.

"And you though I was stupid." Takuya told Koji.

"Turns out, there's always a bigger idiot." Koji chuckled. "To bad this idiot is so hell bent on what she thinks she knows."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Rika demanded before as Tai and Davis' digivices appeared. Out from them, Agumon and Veemon appeared. Rika's eyes widened at the sight of the Agumon. The very same one that she watched fight on the net three years ago. And that google head… "Wait. That was you?"

"Yeah, and Digimon don't digivolve because they get stronger. They digivolve because of the bonds we share." Tai told the red head.

"You're kidding right. That's just stupid." Rika protested.

"Congrats Takuya, you're no longer the most stubborn person I've ever met." Koji told the google head. "She is by far. That's quite an achievement. Takato, don't let her attack."

"ATTACK!" Guilmon growled as he charged Renamon.

"He didn't mean you Guilmon!" Takato yelled as the yellow fox jumped atop a car. "Guilmon! Stop it!" Guilmon unleashed a pyro sphere, destroying a car while Renamon jumped out of the way and let lose a dimonand storm attack that just reflected harmlessly off the reptile's hard skin. She landed behind him. Guilmon made a genuine attempt to roar, only managing a squeak.

"Oh. Was that suppose to scare me." Renamon quipped. "You must have a lovely singing voice."

"Call her off now!" Blake demanded Rika.

"Not a chance." Rika brushed off.

"Either call her off now, or I'll have foxy's head. Either way this fight will…"

"What's going on in here!?"

The humans turned to see Henry walk in with Terriormon on his head. He did not look amused.

"Thank you." Koji huffed. "Someone with sense."

"Don't make me laugh. You honestly think that weeny little bunny can stand up to Renamon?" Rika scoffed.

"Who are you calling a weeny?" Terriormon demanded, jumping off Henry's head. "Henry, I think that qualifies as rude."

"It's been going around little guy." Davis huffed.

"I know. There's a lot about this I don't understand." Henry said in thought. "It's true that in the games, digimon are born to fight but this isn't a game. Digimon are living creatures, not just data."

"He's right. If you haven't learnt that by now, why were you ever chosen as a digi-destine at all?" Tai asked, crossing his arms.

"Digi-what. Don't bunch me in with you weaklings." Rika turned back to Renamon. "Renamon. You know what I expect."

"As you wish." Renamon prepared her attack as Guilmon charged towards her… until Terriormon stumbled out into the battle and the fight was all but forgotten. Renamon gasped. By the time Renamon noticed the dog eared bunny, it was too late. Crystals already began forming around her. "Get back."

Terriormon looked up in time to see the crystals ran down on him. No one moved. Everyone had their moves wide open apart from Henry who was running towards them. A beeping came from his pocket.

The smoke cleared…

"He promised me he wouldn't do it." Henry muttered now worried, looking at Terriormon's champion form. There were a series of laser fire, causing everyone to find shelter. Takuya pushed Koji behind a car just in time before a green bullet of lit hit his and Agumon dove to the ground as a car exploded, Koichi lead Tommy up the ramp, hoping the concrete was as solid as it looked. Davis was tackled by Veemon before the stream of continuous fire could it his partner. Blake hid with Henry and Takato. Only one still standing was Rika, overconfident that she couldn't be hurt in this game.

"This is what I was afraid of!" Henry yelled over the explosion. "He's just not ready for that kind of fire power yet!"

"How did he…" Blake started before he heard another voice.

"This is Yoshino. There's a digimon attacking in Tokyo area 9B!"

"Great! What else could go wrong?"


	9. Going Ape

**Chapter Eight: Going Ape**

Yoshino Fujieda wasn't not a happy camper at this moment, sent to Tokyo to find a group of kids and their digimon partners with no idea when this mission would end, but her job was to escort them to Yokohama, to the Japanese Headquarters of DATS.

She decided to follow Henry Wong from his school, which he walked to his karate class, and then towards the business district of Shinjuku. That when she saw a red dinosaur digimon run into the parking garage. And parking in the heart of Tokyo is a nightmare. No wonder they put a parking garage there, but she didn't want to spook anyone in there by driving in.

Now she stumbled into what could only be described as a war zone, cause by an out of control Gargomon. She informed DATS but right now, she needed to stop that adult sized, green eared gun bunny, before someone get's hurt.

Someone else had the same thought. "…before he hurt's Rika!" A Renamon landed onto of the digimon's head.

"Way a go Renamon! Now's your chance!" Yoshi heard a red haired girl egg on.

"She doesn't realise what's going on!" Renamon grunted as the rabbet fired blindly… one arm was firing in Yoshi's direction… dived to the ground, a piece of concrete pinned her to the ground.

"Yoshi!" She heard Lalamon call from her digi-vice.

"Oh no." Renamon noticed. It was a choice between leaving the woman pinned down or hiding. She couldn't leave her there. She had to do something. Dodging laser fire, she dashed for the woman.

"What are you doing Renamon!?" Rika called after her. "That rabbit is over…" She turned and gasped. Said rabbit was advancing on her. She backed up and hit a wall. She was cornered as the rabbit kept coming. She flashed back to Cerberumon when he cornered her. She felt just as helpless…

"No!" Koji yelled as he sprinted towards Gargomon, fractal code encasing him.

Rika watched at the bandana wearing boy vanish in a cocoon of coding and emerge as a digimon, tackling the gun welding rabbit down…

"Rika!" Renamon heard the crash and went over to her partner… Rika ran past her and up the ramp with one thought on her mind.

"Are they always like that when they Digivolve?"

"I can't believe I just did that." Koji berated himself. He knew he was hanging around Takuya too long. Now he's starting to jump into situations without thinking. De-spirt evolving, he noticed Takato, Tai, Agumon and Guilmon helping out a woman from under a concrete slab that fell on top of her.

"You okay?" Davis asked Henry as he checked over Gargomon.

"He promised me he wouldn't do it."

"Don't digimon digivolve all the time? Well, when the digimon emperor isn't whacking havoc in the digital world."

This peaked Henry's interest. "Digimon Emperor?" Henry asked.

"Yeah. He's been running around the digital world putting up control spires that prevent digimon from digivolving."

From the celling, Renamon processed what she heard before vanishing.

"Thanks." Yoshi said when she was out from under the concrete. One of the boys walked up to her, a black haired, blue eyed boy, Koichi Kimura.

"Anything broken?" He asked.

"Just a twisted ankle." She answered. "Thanks."

"All in a day's work Miss…?" Tai boasted.

"Officer Yoshino Fujieta with the Digital Accident Tachtics Squad." She said showing them her badge. "And you guys are the digi-destined?"

"Yeah. But…" Takato stamered. "How do you know about us?"

"My job is to control digimon and send them back when they enter our world." Yoshi explained. "And before you ask, I've been assured that your partners are allowed to stay with you. Call it thanks for solving the Fog Incident in Obadia, and keeping Lucemon from entering our world. And we know that your trying to save the digital world too. You have our support."

"Thanks but what's this call about anyway?" Tai asked.

"You guys sent an Agumon back to the digital world yesterday night. We believe he's responsible for assaulting fifteen young men in Yokohama." Yoshi told them. Everyone looked towards Blake.

"Then you need to reevaluate your evidence. Either that or Marcus reality did a number on them." Blake chucked. "In other words, Marcus assaulted them." His tone then grew serious. "But what do you know about humans holding Digimon against their will?"

Yoshi recolled at the venom in his question. Like he was suggesting something. "I don't know. Nothing like that ever has ever happened. The general public thinks digimon is only a children's game. Why are you asking?"

"Someone held that Agumon for a while. He was just trying to escape the institution."

"Where is he now?"

"In the digital world in a safe place."

"No. I took him to Marcus' place last night." Tommy spoke up.

"We know." Blake huffed at the boy. "That was a cleaver lie to test her."

"You don't trust me?" Yoshi asked.

"Like you said. The general public thinks Digimon is only a children's game." Koji pointed out. "Unless you can suggest who might hold this Agumon against his will then supposition rests solely on you and your agency."

"I don't know. Maybe someone found this Agumon and wanted to experiment on him." Yoshi pointed out. "Look. You don't have to trust me. Atleast let me talk to him and I'll determine for myself wither there's a genuine threat to our mission objective. I'm also suppose to take you to DATS but I can see that's not going to happen anytime soon. Just how many of you are there?"

"About… twenty of us." Tai answered. "With sixteen digimon and six hybrids."

"Okay. Not going to happen period." Yoshi amended. "What? There was a fire sale on digi-vices? Nevermind. Just tell me more about this digimon emperor."

* * *

"Are you trying to make me look bad?" Rika asked, looking into the pond, the sun reflecting off the waves.

"Why would I want to do that?" Renamon asked from her tree branch. "I only want to make you happy."

"I don't get it. What's your problem?"

"I can't feel the power, the force that enables us to digivolve." Renamon answered. "And I think I know why. I over heard the other tamers talking about an emperor in the digital world, preventing digimon from digivolving."

"Then how did that bunny manage to digivolve?"

"Do I look like I have all the answers?"

"Well then. Find us a way into the digital world."

"As you wish." With that Renamon vanished. Higher up, a robed figure smiled.

"Becareful what you wish for Nonaka, you might just get it." The figure faded out of reality quickly, chuckling quietly to herself.

* * *

"Great. Just when I thought rouge and lost digimon were the majority of my worries." Yoshi moaned as she, Tai and Koji sat at a secluded park bench.. "Your saying this kid is forcing digimon to become their slaves?"

"That's about the core of it." Takuya told her.

"And another thing, you guys can turn into digimon." Yoshi pointed out.

"Pretty much." Koji answered.

"And you've kept digimon out of sight." Yoshi finished.

"Or gave people a much more logical reason." Takato defended. "It's surprising how many people thought Guilmon was a guy in a suit."

"Any more questions?" Tai asked.

"Isn't the digital world dangerous?" Yoshi asked. "You guys just go into it like it's a day at the beach."

"That's an understatement." Blake laughed. "Yt's like a second home for them."

"I wouldn't go that far." Koichi corrected. "There are so many hazards. Some from other digimon. Some from the digital world itself. Some we never saw coming."

"Right now, I'm just glad that no one was seriously hurt in that." Yoshi added.

"Look Takatomon ! can walk on my hands." Guilmon called out, the red reptile walking forward, feet in the air before losing balance, falling forward and ending up on his back. Veemon had attempted to try, but didn't last as long as Guilmon.

"It's easier when you cheat." Gargomon pointed out, standing on the barrels of his lasers. "Can I stop now? This is a real pain in the neck."

"Not yet." Henry told the upside down digimon.

"You really think this will turn him back into Terriormon?" Takato asked.

"It has to. I sure can't take him home as Gargomon now can I? He's too big." Henry told the brunete. "Can you imagine what my parents would say. They'd freak."

"Couldn't you store him in your digi-vice?" Davis asked, showing Henry his.

"Mine's a different model I think." Henry showed them a white, round digi-vice with a ground ring around the screen and the green strap hanging from the top. It was unlike the remodelled D-Tectors they had now, or the small light blue original devices Tai and the others had.

"Another model digi-vice?" Takuya questioned.

"That's not all." Yoshi said producing her's, a pink and white rectangular device with three buttons below it. "These allow us to evolve our partners using our Digimon Natural Ability, or DNA for short."

"Izzy is going to love this." Tai muttered.

"Just how many more are going to show up? They're like cell phones." Blake said as he heard a crash. Guilmon had ended up on the ground. Again. Gaogomon chuckled.

"Guilmon fall down go boom."

"This is weird." Tai went on. "Our partners de-digivolve when they're tired or after a fight."

"So we have to wait until he figures out how to de-volve." Takato concoulded. "I mean, this has to happen to digimon all the time. Especially the rookies. Maybe that girl would know." Takato suggested. "Should we ask her?"

"You kidding. She doesn't even know the first thing about Digimon." Koji scoffed. "Besides, I don't want Tommy's brother to overload Takuya with too many questions about what he's been putting his little brother into."

"That's for sure." Takuya nodded.

"Now I've got it!" Guimon cheered as Tommy and Veemon followed. Then Guilmon fell down, knocking Tommy down, then causing Veemon to fall backwards.

"Nice try." Takato said as Takuya helped Tommy to his feet. "It's getting late."

"Aww. But the control spires…" Davis moaned.

"Will have to wait." Tai shot back. "Besides. I want to see how Izzy goes with that Liberation Virus of his."

"And I've got a digimon I need to stash at home." Takuya said, showing them the inside of his backpack. Yoshi was shocked to see a rabbit napping inside, a yellow rabbit digimon. Then came a beeping.

"Sorry. That's me." Blake told them as a phone came out of his pocket. He held it out, pointing it towards the government building.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" Davis asked.

"Why there?" Blake muttered. "Why out of all of Tokyo, all of this world and the worlds beyond there?"

"Care to explain or leave us guessing?" Tai asked.

"I'm still guessing. Huh."

* * *

"Useless!" The emperor yelled as his fifth group of black rings disintegrated upon entering the area he once held. He just watched as the screen turned to static and white noise filled his ears. "First they find away around my dark digi-vice, now they've taken one of my control spires!"

"Come on master." Wormon said trying to cheer him up. "Don't be depressed. Let's get a few Black Rings, we'll capture a couple of innocent digimon and make their lives absolutely miserable. That should make you happy."

It the emperor was going to make a response, it would have been interrupted by a loud bang. "What was that?!"

"It came from the cells."

Deep inside the emperor's bace, a large digimon bashed at the wall, roaring louder, falling further into it's enraged frenzy. The emperor watched in horror as the black ring strand to control the digimon.

"Great. Just… What! is going on around here?"

* * *

"What the…" Izzy said stunned as his monitor turned to static.

"What's wrong Izzy?" Tentomon asked as everyone's attention turned to the image slowly fading thought the white noise, an outline of a dog eared rabbit…

"Isn't that a Terriormon?" JP asked as the image cleared… into what looked like an old video game. Another digimon appeared from behind the rabbit.

"That's Gorillamon, a Champion level beast. his' energy cannon is overkill compared the ways he could tear you up with only one hand." Bokomon explained as they watched said energy cannon in action, missing the poor rabbit digimon before he counted with a bunny blast. There was an explosion animation and then a skull and crossbones before the animation changed into Terriormon running off and the screen turned to static again. Then a moment after that, Izzy's coding appeared, unchanged from the static.

"What was that?" Joey asked.

"Don't know. Some sort of game replay?" JP suggested.

"But why play on this screen?" Izzy asked. "Does it have something to do with the game I got the code from?"

"What game?" JP asked.

"I picked it up from Henry last night. Digital Monsters three." In response, he showed them the CD case. "I wanted to examine the code and found it remarkably similar to the digimon themselves. It's also disturbing. I thought the card game only came from someone seeing digimon in the real world. Now it could be possible that someone had seen digimon up close. And from how long the've been around, it seems we weren't the first."

* * *

"There! That's it!" Tommy yelled, pointing out a house on the conner. Yoshi stopped the car, parking it around the corner.

"Nice place." Blake commented as they got out and headed for the front door. "Not sure about the cardboard box by the door." Yoshi knocked at the door. A woman with dark red hair, wearing a lavender top and a white shirt answered.

"Can I help you?" The woman asked.

"Sarah Damon?" Yoshi asked, getting a nod from the woman. "I'm Officer Fujieta, this is my… err…" She turned to Blake confused with what to call him. He just gave her a shrug, hoping to move it along. "My associate, Blake Nightingale." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the look both boys gave her. "We're with the DATS unit."

"Come in please." She ushered both of them into the house before noticing the orange hat wearing boy. "Tommy? What are you doing here?"

"Hey Miss Damon. Is Kristy Home?" Tommy asked brightly.

"She's upstairs watering the plants on the balcony." Sarah answered as she walked the two into the lounge room. Blake noticed that the house's interior. The Damons didn't appear to be struggling in any respect. From the photos, they appeared to be a tight nit family, from the electronics, they didn't appear to be struggling financially, rather they had the money to spend. From the looks of how clean the house, Sarah was a stay at home mum. And among other things, he could tell that Sarah was eagerly waiting for the return of her husband. Blake's heart twisted in his chest, knowing that the position Marcus was in.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Sarah asked as she gestured to the seats in the living room.

"No, thank you miss Damon." Blake answered as they sat down.

"Please. Call me Sarah. What's this all about?"

"We'd like to talk to your son." Yoshi said up front.

"Has he done something?" Sarah asked worried. "Is he in to something dangerous?"

"We just need to talk to him Sarah." Blake reassured her.

Upstairs, Marcus watched at the orange lizard shovelled junk food into his maw, chips, candy, chocolate. When he bought it, he wondered if Agumon ate any of this stuff. Now, he was very sure he could eat anything.

"Marcus! Are you home!?" Sarah called out.

In his panic, Marcus picked up Agumon and stuffed him in his closet, just in time for his mother to walk to the door. "And this time keep quite." He turned his back to the closed wardrobe to keep Agumon from coming out. "Hi Mum. What's going on?"

"Well. You're busted, that's what's going. Fess up. While you were out getting into trouble last night, I stayed up worried sick. Now where were you?"

"What trouble? I don't even know the meaning of the word. You really ouder buy me a dictionary." Marcus chuckled nervously as his mother leaned in closer.

"Marcus."

"Yeah mum?"

"You're standing on a candy bar."

"Where'd that come from!"

"Maybe that pile of food on the floor."

"Don't worry mum. I'll clean it up. Well, I better get started so…" He pushed his mum out of the room and closed the door behind her. "See ya."

He moment he stepped away from the closet, Agumon fell out along with a pile of clothing.

"Why did you shove me in there!?" Agumon demanded. Marcus kneeled down to eye level with his partner.

"Because if anyone found you, you might get captured and brought back to the institution." Marcus explained.

"I don't want that."

"Then you're going to have to trust me. We have to keep you hidden at all times."

"Right."

"I wish I had one of digi-vice things. Where did those other guys get those…?"

"Marcus!" Sarah called again.

"Is everything okay up there!?" Came another voice… a familiar one but Marcus didn't have tome to place it. He was already carrying Agumon outside and hiding him behind the curtains.

"I heard talking." Sarah said, noticing her son was across the room huffing. "Is somebody else in here with you Marcus?"

"No. Don't be silly mom." Marcus defended. "You're just imagining things." He tried to explain away but Sarah noticed something orange disappear from under the curtains.

"Are you hiding something?"

"What? Come on."

"Hey. Look at me. I hope you're not forgetting the promise we made. We said 'Until your father comes back, the three of us will tell each other absolutely everything.' No secrets."

At that, Marcus looked down, remembering the body of his father, laid out under a white sheet, on a metal tray. He didn't want to tell her that he wouldn't be coming back.

They heard Kristy scream. Marcus was reminded that Agumon was outside as his little sister ran inside towards her mother's arms, followed by Tommy.

"Wait! Kristy!" Tommy called after her.

"What's the matter Kristy?" Sarah asked.

"There's a giant lizard out there!" Kristy told her.

"A what?" Sarah walked up to the open glass roller door to inspect what might have been out there, with the protests of her son and daughter's friend in her wake. She looked around. "But… there's nothing out here."

"I'm telling you. I saw it." Kristy protested. "You don't mistake a thing like seeing a giant lizard."

"What's going on up here!?" They heard someone call out. A young woman appeared at the door. The same young woman that confronted Marcus and Agumon in Yokohama.

"You!" Marcus snapped at the woman.

"Wait. This isn't what it looks like." Yoshi protested as they heard noises from the celling. "What was that?"

"I bet it's that lizard." Kristy pointed out, running outside.

"Kristy!" Tommy called after her. "It's too dangerous!"

"He's right Kristy!" Marcus told her, stopping her before she had a chance to climb the barrier. "I'll go!"

"Wait a minute!" Yoshi called after him, but he was already climbing up. Then he let out a yell, then Agumon crashed into him, causing him to lose his grip.

Agumon hit the ground first. Marcus landed on top of him… hard. The cat landed on it's feet and ran off.

"Are you okay?!" Kristy called out as Tommy, Sarah and Yoshi ran up to see the two of them, lying knocked out. Yoshi reached for her memory eraser…

It was gone.

"This is the worst." Yoshi moaned. "I can't believe I lost it again."

Blake in the mean time walked out to see if either of them needed any medical attention. They weren't responsive, but they'd live. He found something lying next to Marcus' foot. "It can't be." He picked up the orange and red digi-vice.

* * *

"Kanbara Residence." Yuriko answered the phone. "Sorry Tommy. Takuya isn't home yet." Shinya looked up from his homework. Tommy. If anyone would believe that his brother was replaced by a digimon, then it would be him. "Sure. I'll tell him." Yuriko was about to hang up the phone when Shinya spoke up.

"Is that Tommy?" Shinya asked. "I need to talk to him."

"Hold on a moment. Shinya wants to talk to you." Yuriko told Tommy before handing the phone to her youngest.

"What's up Shinya?" Tommy asked.

"It's about Takuya." Shinya said walking into the living room, so his mother couldn't hear him.

"What about him?" The Kanbara boy looked over both shoulders, making sure no could hear him.

"Takuya's been replaced by a digimon." Shinya whispered into phone receiver.

"What?!" Tommy yelled. "How… What makes you think that?"

"I was attacked by a Cerberumon and a digimon I didn't recognise attacked him." Shinya hissed. "After he took out ultimate digimon, he turned into…"

The door unlocked. "I'm Home!" Takuya called out.

"Is that Takuya?! I need to talk to him!" Tommy yelled.

"But…"

"Shinya? Is that Tommy on the phone?" Takuya asked as he walked into the lounge room, putting his school backpack on the sofa, gently.

"Yeah. It's Takuya." Shinya said defeated, handing the phone to his alleged brother. Takuya took it from him, wondering where he picked up the older accent and what decidedly made him so hostile.

"Yeah. I'm home." Takuya said before Tommy started yelling. "Slow down. All I caught from that was Marcus, Shinya and Agunimon. How does any of them even go into the same sentence."

Shinya thought he saw Takuya's backpack move.

"He has a digi-vice?" Takuya said shocked. "One of the new ones?" The younger Kanbara walked up to the bag and unzipped it. What was inside it looked at Shinya.

"Hey. You're not Tommy."

Shinya yelped in surprise.

"Oh man. Gotta go Tommy." Takuya hung up on the warrior of ice half way though his sentence. Something involving Shinya, himself and Agunimon.

"What's going on in here?" Their mother entered the room to see Shinya pointing at a stuffed rabbit in Takuya's backpack.

"It moved mum. Honest. It moved and talked." Shinya told her pointing at the toy animal.

"Shinya just just got startled by it when he started looking though my bag." Takuya explained as Neemon was as still as a rock. "It was going to be a birthday present. Surprise ruined."

"Damn it! Me know you digimon!" Shinya snapped at Takuya. "Shinya want big brother back!"

"Shinya! Stop this nonsense now!" Yuriko scolded.

Shinya turned on his mother with a look of bloody murder. He let out a frustrated roar and ran out the door, not even stopping to open it. He just rammed right though it, leaving mother and brother shocked and in his dust.

"That sounded like Grumblemon." Neemon pointed out, forgetting his stuff toy act. Yuriko screamed. "Oops."

"Nevermind Neemon." Takuya scoffed picking up Neemon, still in his backpack. "I'll explain later mum. Right now. I need to catch up to Shinya. Can I borrow your phone mum?"

"Taku…" She started.

"Mum. I'll explain later. I need your phone. Now." Takuya ordered. Yuriko in her state of shock obeyed. The moment he got it, Takuya ran after his little brother.

"It was nice to meet you Miss Takuya's mum!" Neemon called out from the bag.

* * *

"Yeah. We just put him to bed." Blake explained to Tai. "Agumon however recovered quickly. He has quite the appetite."

"Tell me about it." Tai told him. "Is Marcus going to be okay?"

"He'll be sore when he wakes up but he'll be fine. Agumon broke his fall."

"Ouch. Glad I'm not in his position. What does his digi-vice look like? New one?"

"Sparkly new. Like a present on christmas day. No. Wait. Envelope on New Years day?"

"That will do outlander. And Yoshi?"

"On the phone with her commander." Blake looked over to the stunned woman. "Something she did not want to…"

"Blake! Yoshi!"

"I know how he feels." Blake muttered as Tommy ran down stairs, his cell phone in hand.

"Shinya knows about Takuya. He was him change from Agunimon!" Tommy yelled as his phone rang. It was a number he didn't recognise. He answered it anyway. "Hello?"

"Tommy! How'd you get trapped in there!?" It was Neemon. And there was the sound of wind rushing past and a pair of feet running.

"Neemon!?" Tommy yelled.

"Don't worry Tommy! I'll get out out of there!" Neemon assured him before there was a scuffle.

"Tommy! I think Grumblemon's spirt is taking over Shinya!" Takuya said. "He just snapped at my mum and ran off!" It sounds like he stopped running. "And I think I've lost him."

"He saw you change back from Agunimon Takuya. He thinks you've been replaced by a digimon." Tommy told Takuya. "He told me himself."

"Grumblemon?" Yoshi asked.

"Accusing to Bokomon, an intelligent little hobgoblin with a lot of hot air." Blake explained. "Tell Takuya to come straight here. I have an idea of who Shinya is coming for. And I've left Tai on the line. He portably heard everything. He's probably on his way here now."

* * *

"Takato. Do you remember that time you found a cat and brought it home?" Yoshie Matsuki asked her son.

"I don't just find it mom." Takato answered. "That old lady gave it to me. Remember?"

"I know. I just want to remind you, we can't have any pets." Takato heard Guilmon growl from upstairs. "Are you listening? Takato? What ever animal you have up in your room, you're just going to have to take it back okay."

Takato laughed nerviously. "Mum. Your crazy. an animal."

At that point, there was a loud bang from up stairs. Everyone was looking up but Takato was looking outside, noticing that a red blur just passed by.

"May I be excused." Takato said quickly, running out to the shop front, putting on his shoes and running after his partner, and his mum calling after him. He hoped that she didn't see him.

* * *

Further down the road, the girls were discussing their shopping while having a warm beverage in a cafe. Their conversation somehow got turned to talking about their different groups. Mimi had left for the airport, but the girls still wanted some time to themselves.

"Honestly. It's like Takuya has a death wish." Zoe said.

"Sounds just like Matt and Tai." Sora then put in. "They were always fighting. I still remember their worse fight when we were fighting against the Dark Masters."

"Know anyone like that?" Yolei asked Clair.

"Not unless you want me to regale some battles over the last jurassic meatlovers pizza slice." Clair told her. "Between Glenn and Koraian, Stars above preserve the brave sole getting between them and their beloved pizza."

"Say, Zoe. Does Takuya have a little brother?" Kari asked.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Zoe said.

"Because that might be him running towards us." Yolei pointed out as a brown haired boy about Cody's age pushed a woman aside, pushing her into the table the girls were sitting at.

"Shinya!?" Zoe yelled as another pint sized runner passed them, only this one wasn't human.

"Guilmon?" Sora questioned, then a third runner came huffing along. He stopped just earshot away from the girls.

"I really need to stop cutting gym class." Takato huffed as he watched Guilmon turn a corner. He had an idea of where the red lizard was going.

"Takato. What's going on?" Sora asked the boy, meeting him on the street.

"I have no idea." Takato huffed. "Why did you think I was running after him?"

"That's Tommy's house around that corner." Zoe pointed out. "Why's Guilmon following Shinya to Tommy's house?"

* * *

"I don't like this." Yoshi moaned. "Using that poor boy as bait."

"Any better ideas? I'm all ears." Blake hissed at her, still watching the warrior of ice, wait on the pouch of his family home. "Besides, it's either this or we join the Damons for corn dogs, rice and fried eggs. I don't want place them in any more danger then I have to…"

"Yoshi." Lalamon pointed towards the door. "Look."

"This doesn't look good."

"Tommy? What are you doing out here?" Yukata asked as he came outside. "I told you to come straight home tonight."

"Yukata. I'm waiting for someone. From sc…"

"Who!? One of those guys you meet in Shibuya!" Yukata yelled, grabbing his little brother by the arm. "Takuya!? JP!? Who Tommy!? Who!?"

"Yukata. You're hurting me." Tommy said, trying to get out of his brother's grip. Yukata released his grip.

"Who's that?" He asked. Tommy turned to see that it was who he was expecting. Shinya Kanbara, running towards him. He rammed into Tommy, pinning him to the ground. "What the…"

"Where is my brother!?" Shinya yelled into Tommy's face. "Tell me now!"

"Hey! Get off of him kid!" Yukata tried to pull Shinya off his brother. Imagine his surprise when the little kid, no older then his little brother, pushed him though the door and into the house.

Blake whistled a long, low whistle. "That'll hurt in the morning. We better stop him before he does the same to…"

"Guilmon!?" Yoshi yelled as the red dinosaur rammed right into Shinya. He stood over Tommy protectively, growling. Shinya picked himself up and let out a deep roar as fractal code cocooned him. When it vanished, a short, big nosed, pointy eared creature stood, face red with anger. He was holding a sledgehammer.

"Now you get it!" Grumblemon charged at Guilmon. Guilmon charged at Grumblemon. Guilmon was able to grab the handle of Grumblemon's mallet and take it from his hands and toss it away, landing by Yukata's dazed from, then it was a struggle for the rookie to keep his opponent from gaining the upper hand. Then there was a loud screech, the noise distracted Guilmon from the fight, causing Grumblemon to throw him off. A family sedan came to a screaming haut in front of the Himi house. From it, Blake saw a brown haired woman emerge from the drivers side, and Takuya come out of the passenger side.

"Shinya!" Takuya called out. Grumblemon charged at the Kanbara boy…

"Seed blast!" Lalamon fired a round of seeds at Grumblemon's feet, stopping him in his tracks. Yoshi and Blake appeared from the bushes.

"What have you done to my brother Grumblemon!?" Takuya demanded, his only restraint was Yoshi's hand. Grumblemon laughed.

"You no know? Little boy saw Agunimon change into big brother. He think big brother impostor, replaced by Agunimon. Big brother's lies convinced little boy." Grumblemon explained. "Grumblemon need no fight when warrior of flame's little brother was so willing to believe Grumblemon's lies."

"Just what was the plan?" Blake asked. "Have Shinya turn against his own brother by making him believe Takuya was replaced by a digimon? Why? I hardly think this is just for revenge against Takuya and the others for beating you several times." Grumblemon just laughed.

"New masters warn Grumblemon about you Shadow of Terra." Grumblemon told Blake. Yoshi thought it was suppose to mean something, but Blake didn't show any sign of recognition.

"New masters?" Takuya demanded. It wasn't as if Cherubimon was using him again, but who would be controlling Grumblemon.

"I won't tell." Grumbemon said before everyone noticed the change in accent and voice. Even Grumblemon himself noticed the slip. Blake smiled,

"So much for having Shinya work with you." Blake said mockingly. "Shinya! Can you hear me!"

"I… I…" Grumblemon clutched his head into his hands. "No! Me no let him go! Me no…" His form flicked and Shinya could be seen inside with a pained expression on his face. Takuya ran up to his brother as the form faded and left the little boy struggling with the fight inside his head. Takuya grabbed his brother by the shoulders.

"Listen to me Shinya. You can't let him control you." Takuya told his little brother. "You have to fight him."

"Takuya…" Shinya looked up to his brother, tears welling up in his eyes.

"You can fight him Shinya." Takuya reminded him. "You can do this. You're not alone either."

"He's right Shinya." Tommy said from behind. "We're all right here with you."

Shinya smiled briefly before letting out a loud battle cry. Both Takuya's and Tommy's digi-vies lit up in response. Everyone in the area heard Grumblemon's voice, angry yell as it faded away, and Shinya collapsed exhorted from the battle within. Takuya only just caught him.

"Takuya." Shinya whispered. "Can you tell me a story?"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief only for Shinya to clench his head again. Blake heard Grumblemon's voice from inside Shinya's head.

"This over is not. Me still here. Me always here!"

Shinya's war had only just began.

"Guilmon!" Takato called out. He, Sora, Zoe and Kari had just arrived, Biyomon and Gatomon battle ready.

"Is everything okay here?" Zoe asked. "We saw…" She stopped when she saw Takuya carry Shinya across the Himi's front yard to a car Miss Kanbara was standing next to. Takuya lied Shinya across the back seat. Kari came up to Takuya's side.

"What happened?" Kari asked.

"It's complicated." Takuya answered. "One of the other warriors that were used by Cherubimon came back. He said he was serving new masters this time."

"Other warriors like Duskmon?" Sora asked. Takuya nodded. "Did he say who this new master was?"

"He didn't. But he called Blake something." Takuya turned to the dimension jumper in question, only to find he wasn't there. "Where…"

"What the hell Kanbara!?" Takuya froze at the sound of Yukata's voice. "What was your bat shit crazy brother on!?"

"Excuse me!" Yuriko protested. "You have no right talking to my son like that!"

"Look lady! One of your sons pushed me though a closed door and threatened by brother and the other has got him into something with his friends of…" Grumblemon's mallet appeared over Yukata's head, and came down on him hard. He collapsed on the the grassy ground.

"His your brother." Blake reminded Tommy as Grumblemon's hammer disappeared into fragmented data.

"Is he okay?" Yoshi asked. Blake leaned in closer and pocked him in the nose.

"Mommy. Can you tell me a story?" Yukata muttered in his daze.

"He'll be fine unfortunately." He said then turning on Tommy. "Go inside and find a bottle of Sake, or anything with a high content of alcohol."

"Do I want to know?" Yoshi asked.

"Just a bit of story telling."

"Over a bottle of Sake?" Zoe asked in disbelief.

"What are you looking at me for. He's the one drinking it. By the way. Tommy's sleeping over at your place." He said to Takuya. "Can't leave him with a paranoid drunk though… I think he has been actuarially drinking."

* * *

"That Mimi might have terrible taste in hair colour, but she does have an eye for style." Clair said as she and Blake continued with a late lunch. "You should see the outfit she picked out for Zoe. It was… You're not paying attention are you?"

"Sora couldn't decide between a green handbag and a yellow swede clutch and you decided that she has two boys on her mind. Yolei got dolled up by Mimi. Zoe found a cute hat… and something about Davis' sister working at the perfume register. Do you want me to repeat the tear filled farewell at the airport when Mimi boarded her fight to New York?"

She chuckled. "I talked to Yuriko Kanbara this morning. Shinya woke up screaming several times last night. She's keeping the boy home from school. And with Sarah Damon. Yoshi has orders to stay in Tokyo to keep an eye on Marcus, and the digi-destine, and you."

"Fun." Blake moaned stabbing his chopsticks into his rice.

"And Izzy. He, JP and Joey didn't even realise it was morning until I called. Oh, and I found a nice base of operations, this lovely warehouse on the harbour. I've already made an offer."

"Dummy company?"

"And the funds are being routed though eighteen banks. You said he called you 'The Shadow of Terra?' You didn't mistake it for something else."

"How could I? He said it. Word for word."

"Stars above. You contacted her?"

Blake nodded before looking up. "What's that?"

"Don't change the subject Blake." Clair scolded.

"No. I'm serious. That doesn't look like a cloud." Blake said pointing to a white mass moving though the air. "And it's going against the movement of the rest of the clouds."

"I've got the bill. Go."

Blake ran off as an old man took his seat.

"My I buy you a cup tea Miss?" He asked.

"Depends. Who's paying?" Clair asked.

"Homer Yoshima."

"Damn. I thought you were one of Roxanne's guys."

* * *

"Come on! We have to get to that contraction site!" Takato yelled, Tommy following, holding on to a laptop. They ran across the road as a motorcycle was coming towards them.

"Takato!" Tommy yelled. Thankfully, the motorcyclist saw Takato and braked, causing the bike to lose balance and the rider to hit the ground. Takato for a moment forgot that Henry needed him and tried to help the biker up, hoping that his leather coat protected him from something serious.

"You okay?" Takato asked at the biker pulled off his helmet.

"Just fine." Blake said shaking out his hair. "Where were you going in such a hurry?"

"Takato! Henry needs us!" Tommy yelled, running past them. Blake picked up his motorbike.

"Jump on. I can get us there faster." Blake told them. Tommy obeyed, but Takato was less willing.

"Aren't those things dangerous?" Takato asked.

"So's running across a road but you seemed to do that willingly." Blake pointed out. "On. Now."

Takato pulled down his googled and go on. The bike revved into life. "Now what?"

"Hold on." Blake instructed, and the bike roared down the street.

* * *

The cloud hit the ground as the bike made a sharp turn into a construction site and into the cloud of fog. The bike had slowed considerably, but the ride was now bumpy. They heard a beeping from Tommy's arms.

"Blake. You might want to stop." Tommy told him as they came to a standstill next to a pile of bricks. Tommy opened the laptop, pointing the screen away from himself as instructed. Tai, Matt, Davis, Yolei, Takuya and Koji fell out.

"Ow. Man. I've got to stop landing on my head." Takuya complained as he got off the pile.

"So what's with the SOS?" Davis demanded.

"Digital field." Tommy answered. "It followed Henry and Terriormon here."

"What happened to guarding the laptop?" Koji asked of the youngest warrior.

"Guys. Digital field sounds bad." Matt interrupted. "And I don't like the looks of this fog."

They heard a loud roar, then a crash. "What was that?" Yolei asked as everyone pulled out their digi-vices, Agumon, Gabumon, Veemon, Hawkmon and Guilmon appearing by their sides, running to inspect the noise. Tommy stayed behind to make sure no one stumbled into the fog and got caught up in the destruction.

"Gorillamon!" They heard Henry. "Stop it! Don't you remember me?!" When they turned the corner, they found Henry confronting a very large gorilla, with a cannon for an arm.

"Henry! What are you doing!?" Takato yelled as the digital gorilla bashed his chest in a very king kong like fashion.

"Listion to me!" Henry yelled at the gorilla. "I won't let Terriormon fight you so just leave him alone! This isn't the game!"

"A game?" Takuya questioned.

"I take it you guys have meet before." Tai said.

"We played the game together." Henry elaborated, not looking away from Gorillamon.

"Well I hate to brake it to him but this isn't a game." Koji noted.

"I don't think he's listening." Terrormon said.

Gorillamon let out a loud roar. "Fight!" In response, Guilmon, Agumon and Veemon charged at him. The gorilla jumped, shot at the two smaller digimon and kicked Guilmon to the side, then landed in front of Terriormon. "Not you. Him."

"Get to higher ground. Now!" Takuya ordered Henry and Terriormon. They nodded and ran up a near by stairs towards the barely finished second floor. The older kids wanted to digi-volve their partners but they couldn't risk doing too much damage to the site, or they'd risk bringing the whole building down. Takuya and Koji spirt evolved while Veemon armour-digivoved into Flamedramon.

There, they could see that their partners were easily over powered by the rampaging ape. Flamedramon was knocked down by a flying Guilmon, Takuya was put down almost immediately and Koji got a taste of the punch the gorilla's arm mounted cannon packed. This ape was strong. Far stronger then he should have been. Agumon, Gabumon and Hawkmon did their best with fire and flying feathers. But it was Terriormon's bunny blast helped them, blinding the rampaging digital ape.

"Terriormon! Stop it!" Henry yelled from the rafters.

"Well what do ya expect me to do?" Terriormon demanded. "Sit back and let him peel these guys like a banana?"

Henry was conflicted…

"Pyro Punch!" Takuya yelled as a flaming fist went for Gorillamon, knocking him into a pile of cement bags, causing them to burst. The whole area filled with dust.

"Nice one Takuya!" Koji yelled at the warrior of flame. "I can't see a thing! Takuya! Takuya?" A fist found it's mark in Koji's chest and sent him flying.

"We've got at least the equivalent of three champions against him. He should be going down easy." Takato said.

"The obsessive types never do." Blake reminded them as the dust cleared. The rookies began running around the gorilla, firing at him. Takuya came up behind him to deliver a punch but Gorillamon jumped out of the way in time.

"Man. This guy is just too fast." Takuya told them.

"We need to hold him down some how." Flamedramon suggested.

Takato looked though his deck, looking for something. Henry pulled something out of his deck. "What about that?"

"Training grips?" Takato questioned as Henry swiped the card though his digi-vice. The training grips appeared on Terriormon's ears.

"Hell of a time for training." Yolei yelled.

"Wait for it." Henry said as Terriormon threw the grip off his ears and they were tangled up around the gorilla. "Oh. I see."

"Guilmon! Now!" Takato yelled. Everyone attacked at once, including a Tornato that lifted Gorillamon up into the air, and when it disappeared, slammed him into the ground.

"The bigger they are…" Terriormon started.

"The harder they fall." Koji finished as Gorillamon broke apart into data fragments. The fragments themselves formed into a digi-egg that lied in the crater Gorillamon made.

* * *

"How did he escape!?" The digimon emperor demanded, looking at the empty cell. There was no way Gorillamon got out. It's like he vanished out of thin air. Even the Dark Ring was left in the cell. "First those kids destroy three of my precious control spires, and now I have slaves vanishing right from under my nose."

* * *

"Digi-port open." Tai commanded of the laptop. The light blinded them and the egg was pulled into the screen. The light faded and the egg was gone.

"That was amazing." Takato said, leaning on the railing of the walkway.

"Yeah. You and Terriormon made a great team." Tai added, both looking at Henry who was looking off into the distance.

"Yeah. Thanks you two." Henry said, not paying much attention to the statement.

"Why are you thanking them? They didn't do anything." Terriormon asked.

"What's with the egg?" Henry asked. "I thought when digimon get defeated, their data would be absorbed."

"Where'd you here that from?" Koji asked, genuinely concerned that Henry wasn't as intelligent as he thought.

"That how it works in the game." Henry said.

"But this isn't a game Henry." Takuya said.

"Strange, hearing it from you." Koji smirked.

"I guess in the real world, their essence is collected straight into a digi-egg since they can't get back to the Village of Beginnings." Tommy pointed out.

"Don't you mean primary village?" Matt asked.

"Anyway." Tai interrupted. "Digimon that get defeated get reborn and reconfigured. They start again." Henry brightened at the statement.

"I get it." Henry nodded. "A new beginning."

"Takatomon. I'm hungry." Guilmon said.

"Guilmon. I told you. I'm not a mon." Takato moaned. "Oh forget it. Let's just catch up with Davis and Yolei and get something to eat." He sighed.

"Okay Takato."


	10. Best Laid Plans

**Chapter Nine: Best Laid Plans**

"Ahhh!"

A moan escaped Takuya as his little brother's screams woke him up for the fourth time tonight. He climbed out of the bed and walked out of the room, taking care not to trip over Neemon passed out on the floor, intending to clam Shinya down after another Grumblemon Induced nightmare. He found his little brother, the unwilling warrior of earth's host, on the hardwood floor of the room, clutching his head, curled up in a ball. He looked up to Takuya with fear and pain filled eyes, tears streaming out. He looked almost afraid of him. The older brother walked in, kneeled by the shaken boy and place a hand on his shoulder before pulling the younger boy into a brotherly hug.

"Takuya?" He heard his brother's chock out, still sobbing. "Am… Am I a m… monster?"

"Wh…" Takuya was obviously taken aback by the question. Why would he even ask that? Why? "Shinya. You're not a monster." He told him softly. "You're my little brother. And not matter what happens, you will always be my little brother."

"Grumblemon said…" Shinya began.

"And you're going to believe what that jerk says?" Takuya interrupted him. "He's just trying to get to you Shinya. Don't let him. You're in control now." Shinya nodded, trying to get back to sleep, which he did shortly. Takuya wasn't so fortunate, lying awake for the past hour, sleep failed to overcome him, so he got dressed and went for a walk, leaving his parents a note before he left. Time and location was lost to him during his wonder, until he came across the sign.

Shinjuku Park.

"How long had I been walking?" Takuya asked himself. He noticed that there were flashes of light within the foliage. He felt troubled, like something was coming. He walked as quietly and as slowly as possible, flashes of lightning white, fire orange, and ice blue came from behind the trees, and the sound of metal on metal, some sort of fight.

When he made it to the clearing, he saw something that could only be compared to anime action scene, assuming the villain sent living crash test dummies after the hero, who was wearing a familiar leather duster, hood up, with a katana sword in one hand, while the other was free but glowing. Takuya didn't understand why until a sphere of cold energy shot from that open palm. It hit one of the dummies, ice encasing it's joints. He watched the figure shot spheres of orange, white and blue, slashing, kicking and pulling of some complicated and gravity defying acrobatics and movements. He even stood upside down on a platform of light before diving into a dummy, slitting it down the middle with his sword. He turned towards Takuya, sword's tip aimed at his head. A jet of air propelled him across the clearing and in a flash, the distance was closed.

The sword missed him by an inch and there was a loud squeal from right next to his head. A large ugly purple flying incest, a hornet the size of his head, was shish-kabobed on the sword for a moment before it turned into a thick purple sludge that covered Takuya's face, clothes and the figure's leather coat.

"Sorry about that mate." Blake said as he pulled off his hood. "I hate it when those things came after me during practice time. You okay?"

"Uh… Yeah. What was that?" Takuya asked wiping some of the sludge off his face. "How did you even do those moves?"

"Jamie taught me the basics of the arcane arts, Clair kinda gave me some pointers with the acrobatics, and some lets not forget a ronin who was more then happy to train a foreigner after he helped him avenge his former master's death. Mix in some zero-gravity training and hard-light platforms, you get some pretty potent ninja moves." He clicked and pointed to the sludge on Takuya's face. "That's why I wear dragon hide leather." He walked over to his bag that was rested next to a tree.

"And what did this used to be?"

"A drone. An artificial life form controlled remotely. They're created by… men who have a very plain ambition for the world. They inject a lethal poison into it's victim that can bring down a full grown tyrannosaurus in thirty seconds. You didn't swallow any did you?"

"No!" Takuya really hoped he didn't as Blake walked back with a towel in hand. He gave it to Takuya who dabbed the sludge off his face.

"What are you doing out here this early in the morning?" Blake asked. "Actuarially, what are you doing up at all?"

"Grumblemon been filling Shinya's head with nightmares." Takuya answered. "This last one kinda hit close to home. He just looked at me and asked plainly 'Am I a Monster' right to my face, tears in his eyes… man."

"And your parents?"

"Mum's taking it hard. She's worried about me running into another dimension and picking fights with monsters. That's nothing compared to how I feel."

"I have an idea of how you feel. You've protected Shinya from Cerberumon, and kept a demon lord from entering this world. But you feel helpless that you can't face Shinya's enemy when it's in his head." Blake told him. "It's just how your mum, and any parent of a digidenstine will feel. It a danger that they know they can't protect their children from." Takuya nodded understandingly, well aware of the questions his mother asked, and needing to be brutally honest with some upsetting and possibly distressing answers. Speaking of…

"What are you doing up?" Takuya asked.

"I don't sleep much anymore." He answered. "And I get board easily. Good thing Tokyo isn't a small city. Nor is it one you can see the same way twice." He sighed. "It's probably best if I take you home Takuya. Unlike your mother, I know what's out there. And anything she could imagine is nothing compare to many of things I've had to contained with."

Takuya nodded, not wanting to argue.

"So what was the question?" Blake asked.

"What?"

"The question Shinya asked. What was it?"

"Am I a monster." Takuya returned. Blake stopped, his face fell and Takuya could see the concern in his face.

"Takuya? Do you know what Disassociated Physical Identity Disorder is?"

* * *

"Why's everyone over at the soccer field?" Takato asked.

"Gee I don't know." Kazu said. "A soccer game maybe?"

"At seven thirty in the morning?" Takato shot back as he ran towards the field. He found Tommy Katsuharu, Teppei and Kristy standing on the field side, looking at it.

"Is it suppose to be a drawing of some kind?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah. It's a masterful rendition of a wriggly line." Kristy shot at the younger boy.

"Takato." Teppei whispered. "Can we talk without…" Teppei pointed to Kazu. Katsuharu and Kisty made eye contact. Tention between them was heavy, but what ever they were about to do, they agreed that it was enough to put aside was ever quarrels they had.

Katsuharu rammed himself into Kazu's side. "Kristy! Have you lost your mind!?" Katsuharu yelled at the girl.

"That's rich considering how much you claimed those digimon were real." Kristy shot at him. "A whole subway platform under Shibuya Station no one knows about. You know how ridiculous that sounds right?"

"You're just upset because you didn't get a message last year and your brother did."

"Leave my brother out of this."

As the fight unfolded right in front of the school, Tommy and Teppei dragged Takato to the back of the school, where the rabbit pens were kept.

"Takato. How'd you get your digi-vice?" Tommy asked.

"It used to be my card reader." Takato answered. "Why?"

"Show him Teppei." Tommy pushed Teppei. From his pocket, Teppei produced a digi-vice, a new one. A blue with green handles…

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." Izzy said over the com unit. "You said Teppei was one of the kids who entered the digital world by the trailmon but didn't get a warrior sprit."

"Yeah. He was one of the four that stayed in the digital world. He and Katasharu, along with Chiaki and Teruo from Koto." Takuya explained.

"How many kids boarded those trailmon?" Izzy asked.

"Don't know. They ended up at Forest Terminal while we arrived at Flame Terminal." JP answered this time, from the same end as Izzy.

"Gentlemen. Unless you have an update for us, please reframe from using the com-links." Blake instructed. "You can satisfy you rabid curiosity later Izzy."

"Fine." Izzy reluctantly agreed. "We're done in this area. That's twelve control spires today."

"Give us a minute and we'll make it a happy thirteen." Blake told him before closing the com. He looked over to TK, Henry and, surprisingly Mimi. Henry was going though his cards and picked out a suitable one so Terriormon can help destroy the control spire.

"Can we hurry this up please? I need my beauty sleep for tomorrow.." Mimi asked as Blake finished adjusting the particle rifle.

"On my count." Blake interacted as Henry prepare to swipe, armoured and champion digimon prepared their attacks, and children prepared themselves for the coming fallout. "Three… Two… One…"

"Digimodifiy! Power Activate!"

"Bunny Blast!"

"Needle Spray!"

"Pyro Tornato!"

"Hand of Fate!"

Along with a volatile single alpha particle shot at high speed, holy energy, bullets of light, a shower of needles and a wave of flame hit the obelisk. Dust and debris filled the kids vision as the spire toppled to the ground with a yell of 'Timber' from Terriormon.

"That makes thirteen." Henry told Izzy over the com.

"Just one left to go." Izzy told them.

"Takuya. Help Davis with this one. Looks like a prime candidate for liberation." Tai ordered.

"We don't need Takuya's help." Davis complained.

"Not Takuya." Koji shot at the google head.

"Thanks Kou. I fell so wanted." Takuya chuckled.

"Blake's the only one who can liberate a spire." He continued. "Remember?"

"It'll take time." Blake pointed out. "Koji. How long can you hold your position?"

"Long enough I hope." Koji returned.

"Takato? Still there?" Takuya asked.

"Just heading for the digi-port." Takato told him.

"Better odds of success in numbers." Blake noted. "If Takato's group hold the digi-port, even if we aren't successful, we can still get out clean."

"We're on our way there." Takuya told them.

"Good luck guys." Tai told them.

* * *

"Feeling better Shinya?"

The younger Kanbara looked up to his brother's friend, the young hat wearing boy had a look of concern and worry. It was on all their faces. Tommy's, Cody's, Kristy's, even Miss Damon looked over from the dinner she was cooking with the same look on her face. They all knew about what was happening to him. His mom told him to stay home from school, and he didn't want to stay in the house much more, alone with only the voice in his head to keep him company.

He just nodded in answer, making sure not to make eye contact.

The warrior of Ice looked back at his own cards. He couldn't imagine what the boy was going though, or maybe he didn't want to, but after what he was told by Takuya, he could make a decent guess. He figured it was like him and Kumamon fighting inside his head. The four children played in uncomfortable silence, only the soft snores from Cody's partner

"It's your move." Kristy told him. Shinya looked down at his cards, and nearly dropped them when he saw his Grumblemon card smile at him. At a second look, it was actuarially his Volcanomon card.

"Shinya?" Tommy asked again when he put his hand on the table.

"I don't want to play this game anymore." He said.

"It's okay Shinya. We can play something else." Cody told him. "Why don't we…" They heard a smash, like glass braking.

"What was that?" Sarah demanded.

"Cody, Armadillomon, watch them." Tommy ordered, taking the lead and ran upstairs with his digi-vice. He sprit evolved into Kumamon, Romeo Launcher ready and in hand when he got to Marcus' room. He pushed the door open, and found Renamon with the laptop in her furry paws. "Freeze Fox." She fired a series of snowballs at the digimon, which hit the fox before she could dodge them. She made it out of the room regardless.

"Cody!" Tommy called out. "Renamon took the laptop!"

"We have to go after her!" Cody shot back as the warrior of ice changed back into his human form and ran for the door. "Kristy. Shinya. Stay here."

"I'll grab my bike. You think you can ride Takato's?" Tommy asked.

"Won't he be mad?" Cody asked back, not getting an answer. Cody looked at the bicycle, leaning on it's stand. "Sorry to do this Takato." Cody started peddling and went after the fox digimon.

* * *

"Come on Boss!" Agumon complained for the third time in an hour. "I'm staving and it's cramped in here!"

Marcus winced as he sprayed the aerosol over the ground for the fifth time today, turned on a UV light and waved it over the area he sprayed. And for the fifth time, nothing. Clair said the change would be dramatic if the conditions were there, otherwise, nothing. Clair on the other hand had something resembling a geiger counter, the way it beeped when she waved it over various items. It was a quite afternoon in Shinonome district of Koto, not many people were wondering around Shinonomeryokudo Park, there was a red headed girl in overalls who asked him what he was doing, several times, only to stop her pursuit of questions midway because of a blimp, phone call or in one instance, Agumon's complaining, leading her to believe she was being haunted by a ghost. Marcus sighed and thought about dinner.

"Clair! Are we done yet?!" He yelled over to the girl.

Sighing, she turned to Marcus. "I don't understand. This morning, this whole area was an aether hotspot one moment, and not the next. The walls between realities doesn't just thin overnight, and repairs itself by the afternoon. No. Someone's experimenting… testing the wall for it's weakest point." She explained.

"Why?" Marcus asked.

"Only reason I can think of is to either breach into the digital world." Clair answered. "Or a weapon that could wipe out East Asia."

"Great. More things to wary about." Marcus moaned.

"Relax. If they managed to…" Clair huffed. "You know what, I can't think without food. How about I buy something to eat. There must be some good vegetarian food around here."

* * *

"Intruder! Intruder!"

To say that Koji was tired from the near uncountable numbers of Guardromon didn't come close to describing the fatigue that was overcoming the digimon hybrid between dogging missiles and shooting lasers at black rings. He could feel Lobomon's form begin to fail and separate from reality. He wasn't the only one feeling the fatigue. Next to him, Yoshi's partner, Lalamon was having a difficult time, the rookie digimon's seed blasts weren't as strong as before. Kabuterimon's Electro Shocker wasn't going to hold up much longer either. And neither was Flamedramon's Fire Rockets to. He turned to Davis.

"He can't hold our ground much longer!" He admitted to the boy.

"How long until they load the virus into the control spire?" Yoshi asked Davis who had the open connection to Takuya's group. He shock his head at the response.

"The virus isn't working." Davis relayed. "They're going to have to do what Jamie did and reprogram the spire manually. That took forever last time."

"I knew I should have tested it first." Izzy moaned, disappointed that the virus failed to work. "We need to fall back now!"

"Davis, get Takato's group to lay down cover fire. We're going to need it." Yoshi instructed.

"Are you guys out of your minds?!" Davis yelled. "Quit now?! I've never been a quitter!"

Koji wanted to argue, but his digimon form flickered. Suddenly, he, Kabuterimon and Flamedramon were cocooned in Fractal code and they reverted back into their rookie forms as Koji reverted back to his human self.

* * *

"Davis! Don't be so stubborn!" TK yelled over the link. "There are far to many of them!"

"Get out of there while you still can!" Blake added. "I'd rather quit and still be alive then fail and be very dead."

"Takato! Kari! Can your group cover them!?" Takuya called.

"Easy Takky. Don't worry about a thing." JP assured the warrior of flame, looking over the group he had ended up with, Matt, Gabumon, Takato, Guilmon, Kari and Gatomon. Kari for the past few minutes was looking at the card that Takuya had given her along with the digi-metal of light. He chuckled at the fight Tai and Blake got into when the older brother accused him of play matchmaker. Somehow, it ended with the two laughing over something that only Davis and Takuya understood, and refused to explain to anyone else.

"We can do it. Right boy?" Takato turned to his partner who gave him a reassuring nod.

"We're coming up behind you guys." Blake told them. "It'll make all of us feel better if we back you guys up."

"It would make a lot of us feel better." Matt replied as they began to run towards their comrades, Matt digivoloing his partner into his champion form, not noticing the television set light up and two figures appered in the alleyway. The redhead smiled.

"Come on Renamon. We've got work to do."

* * *

"Howling Blaster!"

"Pyro Sphere!"

"Thunder Fist!"

Each attack found their mark on the black ring controlled machine digimon, shattering the loop, and freezing the machines in place, forcing the others to navigate around them, slowing them down as they pursued the rookie digimon and humans. Koji tried to focus Lobomon's energy, trying to force a partial sprit evolution, similar to what Takuya did, protecting that Flamemon. Lobomon's gauntlet managed to appear around his wrist. He was able to fire off a few well aimed bolts of light before the gauntlet faded, and he collapsed to the ground after straining his already depleted strength. He noticed two pairs of hands helping him up, Davis' and Izzy's.

"And you were yelling at me for not running." Davis pointed out.

"Shut up Motamiya." Koji growled using words that was normally reserved for his best friend. But he wasn't the one gloating right now.

"Grenade Destroyer"

One Guardromon had managed to aim and fire a pair of rockets towards the trio…

"Pyro Darts!"

…only to be stopped by small embers that made the rockets explode too early. A loud bang, the sound of metal hitting metal and the sight of the black ring falling off made Koji theorise that it was a bullet hitting it, froze the attacking Guardromon in place.

"Hand of Fate!"

"Needle Spray!"

"Bunny Blast!"

"You guys okay?" The hybrid digimon asked the two digi-destined.

"I'm fine." Koji growled, pushing both Davis and Izzy away.

"Rosita Stone!"

"We need to hurry!" Kari yelled from atop a white, sphinx digimon Takuya and Koji had seen guard Ophanimon's castle.

"Come on Davis!" Veemon yelled to his partner.

Yoshi was the first one to run around the corner, her digi-vice aimed at the television set. "Digi-port Open!" The set didn't react like she'd expect. She assumed it was because her digi-vice was a different model to the children's, and wasn't designed to enter and exit the digital world with such ease. Izzy and Davis turned the corner with their digimon following, still carrying a limp Koji who had his blue and white digi-vice in hand, aimed at the television set. "Digi-port! Open!"

A bright light swallowed the group and still shined as more digi-destine and digimon began to run towards it. JP, Matt and Gabumon, then Mimi and Palmon. Takato, Guilmon, Henry and Terriormon went though together, TK, Patamon and Blake followed them, Blake still carrying a sniper rifle. Kari and Gatomon turned the corner, following her friends and comrades, followed by Takuya, still in his champion digimon form. He noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A Guardromon, taking aim at the television set that served as their only exit out. It was clear that he, nor Kari and Gatomon were going to make it. Not unless the boy tapped into Agunimon's strength. He caught up to Kari, picked her and her partner up, with some protest, and jumped, making the digi-vice appear in the warrior of flame's hand as he, the girl, and the cat digimon were caught by the portal's light and pulled in just a beat before he heard "Grenade Destroyer!"

When the dust cleared, the alleyway was empty.

* * *

In the bight orange colours of the dying afternoon, the forest area of a park was quiet. All was silent until an abandoned laptop began to start up, it's mechanics spinning, it's screen bathing the trees in a bright white light as teenagers and digimon suddenly tumbled out of the light and into a pile on the ground. On top, Kari tried to recall what just happened, between running and being swept off her feet with someone's arm around her waist. It was Takuya's and she recalled the warrior of flame sweeping her and Gatomon up and… Blood rushed to her face quickly as a blush blossomed arose her cheeks.

"There has got to be an easier way then this." Koji moaned from the bottom.

"You can talk." Gatomon shot at the boy. "Some of us are lucky still still have our tails."

"She's right. I saw the TV get blown up as we came though." Patamon added. "Weren't you right behind us?" Both digimon noticed Kari was hiding her face.

"I need to check if Mimi made it back to New… Wait a minute." Izzy fumbled after finding that there was something green under them. "Grass?"

"That's weird." JP noted. "Shouldn't we be in Marcus' room?"

"I'm going to have a look around." Yoshi announced, picking herself up and walking off, Lalamon following.

"That's were we left the laptop." Takato noted.

"Takato. I smell Renamon." Guilmon announced.

"Where!" Various digimon asked as they readied themselves for any surprise attack.

"She's not here anymore." Guilmon added. "She was here a little while ago."

"Wait, if Renamon was here…" Kari started as she noticed that she was still in Takuya's embrace. Her face broke out into a blush as she tried to hide the redness in her face from the others.

"And the laptop turned up here?" Izzy added as he picked up the laptop and began typing.

"And Renamon is gone…" Blake started

"What's up Izzy?" Yolei asked as she, JP and Henry came in closer to see what the young genius was doing. "It looks like you're looking for digi-vice signals."

"I see. If you pick up a digi-vice signal though the digi-gate program, you can pin point it's location in the digital world." JP observed.

"And the person it belongs to." Yolei added. "And that will tell us if someone is still in the digital world, and where they are."

Izzy pointed to the red dot in the middle of a desert on the map.

"We were just in that area." Koji pointed out. "How did we miss…"

* * *

"It's almost your dinner time. Shouldn't you be going home soon Ken?" Wormon asked his partner, only for the boy to turn towards the digimon, with a look of pure malice in his eye.

"Never call me anything but master!" He yelled at the poor digimon, causing him to cower. "Since she's all alone…" The Emperor said, summoning his keypad. "She deserves someone special." A silhouette of a large humanoid digimon appeared on one of the large screens.

"Oh no. You can't." Wormon protested. "Anyone but him"

"You summoned me your highn…" The screen turned to static, along with every other in the room.

"Again! What is happening!?"

* * *

They kept coming.

"Diamond Storm!"

All she could do was destroy the rings around their boiler locks before more showed up and took aim at her and Rika. They were difficult to destroy for being champions. And there were so many of them.

"Stop playing around Renamon!" Rika yelled. "They're just standing there! Destroy them and load their data!"

"Grenade Destroyer!"

Renamon dodged the projectiles before kicking the ring, rendering it into bits of useless data. Rika huffed. She went to all this trouble to get into the digital world so that she didn't need to wait for digimon to appear in the real world. But Renamon was just playing around. But her partner was trying her best to survive.

"Come on Renamon! Load their data and digi-vo…"

"Grenade Destroyer!"

In a slit second, Renamon heard a Guadromon announced his move. He had snuck up behind the human, aimed and fired.

"Aughhh!"

At the last minute, Renamon teleported herself in the way of the rockets and took the blasts. Rika saw her digimon lying on the ground, eyes looking at her.

"Rika… Run…"

Instantly, the entire area was swallowed in white light.

* * *

"Sir. There's another anomaly in the network. The levels on this one are higher then the others."

"Interesting. Send a tracer."

"On it sir."

"And get Kanbara and a squadron to observe."

"Armed forces are on route."

* * *

"Hmm." Clair licked her lips, enjoying her vegi-dog while Marcus and Agumon had the genuine article… but knowing what might be in those things was one of the reasons she was glad her species is herbivorous.

"This is really good boss." Agumon mentioned as he shoved his third hotdog into his mouth.

"Since when does fog come in the middle of the afternoon?" Marcus asked.

"Fog?" Clair asked, turning towards the park… She pulled out her phone and called Blake.

* * *

"Ow. Say. Shouldn't we put some pillows here if we're going to keep doing this?!"

"Speak for yourself." Koji moaned from under the pile of bodies that fell out of the laptop, a tangle of Digimon and Humans piled atop of him, much to the amusement to the others. Tai, Agumon, Sora, Biyomon, Joe, Gomamon, Yolei, Hawkmon, Zoe and Koichi had appeared out of the light.

"Koji!" His older twin yelped, getting off the pile first. Everyone else followed quickly, allowing the Warrior of Darkness to help his brother up.

"I'm okay Koichi." Koji assured him quickly. Koichi gave him a look. He wasn't buying the excuse.

"What's going on?!" Yoshi called out as she came back into the clearing.

"Don't ask." Was the collective response.

"What just happened?" Tai asked. "Why are we in the park?"

"And why did we de-digi-volve?" Agumon added, noticing he wasn't Greymon anymore.

"Last thing I remember was that last control spire coming down and then…" Gomamon started. "Then Joe's digi-vice was flashing red."

"Wasn't just his." Zoe added, looking at her own.

"Fascinating." Izzy started.

"But not important." Blake pointed out. "Someone's missing in the digital world."

"Who?" Sora asked. "Joey?"

"Rika." Koji growled.

"Wait. Who is this Rika person?" Yolei asked. In response, JP brought up her blog page. Izzy looked it over as his face began to twist into shock and then disgust. Each digi-destine that looked over his shoulder could see why. Pictures worth a thousand words, and the commentary with it didn't help the girl's case either. Takato clicked on a youtube video, the sound of Rika ordering Renamon to do the unthinkable echoed though the laptop's speakers.

They all watched in horror as Renamon smashed the digimon's egg, and absorb it's data.

"That's horrible." Kari gasped.

"How can she just…" Matt started, but found no strength to finish his sentence.

"I know. Just reading about it makes me feel sick." JP pointed out.

"How can a digi-destine do this anyway?" Sora demanded.

"Don't know. But if she's still in there, we need to get her out." Tai said with conviction. "Who knows how many digimon she'll destroy."

"And she's in the digital world?" Yoshi groaned. "This is the worse."

"Besides, her theory is flawed. Digimon don't digi-volve by absorbing one another's data." Izzy informed them. "It's…" He was interrupted by Blake's phone ringing. He answered it.

"Great." He sighed before turning to the others. "There's a digital field appearing in Koto. Clair says it's early stage, but something big is coming though."

"Just great. Okay. We'll have to deal with both problems at once." Takuya sighed. "Why don't Tai and I take a group to Koto to deal with what's coming though there, Takato can try to get Rika out of the digital world. How much of that control spire did you reprogram?" Takuya demanded from Blake.

"It's reprogrammed. I just need to restart it and make it take the reconfigurations." Blake answered. "And beyond doing what Jamie did last time, I have no idea about how to do that. Jamie used an unstable emotional link and overloaded it, along with the control spire. Hopefully, something like that won't occur naturally in the digital world, given what it did to Santa Kariea."

"And if it did?" Izzy inquired. Blake shrugged.

"Wait a second! What about me and Veemon?!" Davis suddenly demanded.

"Your partner needs some time to rest." Joe pointed out. "If you want to be useful, help Koji home."

"And while you're at it, make the excuses to his parents." Takuya added.

"What for?" Davis demanded.

"Because…" Koichi started. "His parents doesn't know he's staying with his biological mother. He hasn't told them yet."

Everyone turned to Koichi, processing what he said.

"I'm just not ready to meet him yet." Koichi answered the unasked question.

"I'll take him." Yoshi offered. "If I can get some help carrying him back to the Damon house."

"J.P will help." Zoe offered.

"Why m…" J.P. was about to ask when Zoe gave him a peck on the cheek.

"It's fine." Koji growled, standing up while using the tree for leverage.

"If you're sure." Zoe huffed.

"Hey. Why don't I go with Takato and Davis can help Takuya once he get's Koji home." Tai suggested. "And Izzy, look into what Blake suggested earlier about how the metals are linked to the warrior's elements and our crests."

"Wait! When did he suggest that?" Izzy asked.

"Somewhere between Gatomon boasting her Ultimate digi-volution and Davis asking if there's a AngelBabymon." Takuya pointed out, much to the shock of the present digi-destine.

"Really?" Blake questioned. "When?"

"When you were talking to yourself while flipping though Jamie's notes." Tai answered. "It was of the few words I could actuarially understand."

"Wait. You're both fluent in english?" Blake pointed out.

"Kari and I have an uncle in England." Tai answered.

"I lived in Washington for a year when I was four." Takuya answered before turning towards the train station. "Okay. Let's spit up."

"With the television set destroyed in Full Metal City, we need to use the one in the Folder Desert." Izzy proposed. "Once Yoshi and I get back to the Damon house, I'll start making excuses for everyone."

"Great. Let's do this then." Tai walked up to Izzy who had the laptop open and ready. "Digi-port open!" Along with him and Agumon, he was followed by Matt, Gabumon, Joe, Gomamon, Yolei, Hawkmon, Takato, Guilmon, Zoe, Koichi and Blake, leaving Sora, Biyomon, Kari, Gatomon, T.K, Patamon, Davis, Veemon, Henry, Terriormon, J.P and Takuya to deal with the bioemergance in Koto City.

* * *

"Woah! Oof!"

"Takato! I can't stay up!" Guilmon yelled out before planting his nose into the ground. "Ow."

"Wait a minute, what happened to the desert?" Tai demanded, looking out over the transparent dunes of glass.

"This is new. A desert so hot that the sand turned to glass." Blake laughed as Yolei tried to stand up on the slippery ground.

"Look at that storm." Zoe observed. "Something doesn't feel right." She pointed up to the clouds as arcs of lightning flashed and lit up the sky.

"Not again." Koichi moaned. "It feels like that Time Fissure, like last time."

"Time Fissure?" Joe asked.

"A point in creation where two points of a timeline meets." Matt explained to his friend best he could. "It caused the desert to turn to glass right?"

"Partial credit." Blake pointed towards the glass. "The metal in the sand attracted the lightning. The fissure caused the lightning."

"Anything we need to know?" Takato asked as they began to walk, unsteadily.

"Be prepared to face the past."

* * *

"Agent Kanbara. We're about four minutes out." The driver told him. Hiroaki Kanbara nodded as he checked his side arm, not sure what to expect. He was caught off guard when the car came to a stop suddenly. The drive honked his horn. "What the hell are you doing kid?!"

"Takuya! Hurry up!" Came a voice. Kanbara looked up to see his son recover from a stumble and run across the highway. He was followed by a brown haired girl and a cat… wearing gloves.

"Sorry about the trouble mister." The girl called to the car.

"Takky! Tell your girl to hurry up!" A more familiar voice called out but Hiroaki couldn't remember his name but could recall that the voice belonged to a chubby boy in a blue and yellow jumpsuit.

"She's not her girl!" Another voice yelled.

The older Kanbara opened the door an called to his son, noticing that he was running head first into the fog. His calls fell failed to grab the boy's attention, and much to the protests of his driver, Hiroaki got out of the car and ran after the boy.

Takuya in the mean time made it though the fog, pulling his googles back off his eyes and resting then on his cap, he found Marcus, Agumon and Clair standing in the centre of the digital field.

"Has it come though yet?!" Kari called to the brown haired boy and white haired girl. Clair shock her head.

"It's on it's way boss." Agumon reminded in turn as digi-destine began to appear though the digital fog. They were amazed by the size, taking up most of the district. And the park was right in the centre of it. People were outside, some making comment that it looked like what happened in Obadia four years ago. Those who recalled it were concerned that those monsters would appear again.

"Takuya!" They heard in the distance.

"We need to get these people indoors." Takuya pointed out, still not hearing his father's call.

"Agreed." Clair nodded but Kari and Sora took the insinuative and ran over to a group to try and convince them to go indoors. She instead pulled out a small device from her bag that looked like an orange sphere. "Davis, I need you and Veemon to place one of these in the digital field." She told the boy.

"Why?"

"It'll charge the particles and create a current that will cause the fog to keep she digimon from getting out." Clair explained. "Do it before…"

"Takuya!" The voice called out again.

"Oh no." JP couldn't keep from slipping from his mouth when he found the voice familiar.

"Taku…"

There was an explosion and a shop front burst into flames. The digi-destined turned just in time to see a middle aged man with brown hair, wearing a three peace suit get thrown forwards by the blast. Clair found the man familiar, but it was Takuya who knew who he was.

"Dad!"

"Takuya! Wait!" Marcus grabbed the boy's arm before he could run forward to help his father. Red eyes pierced the smoke as they saw a silver figure emerge from the flames and heard a distorted robotic voice.

"I will destroy the enemies of the emperor."


	11. Full Metal Fissure

**Chapter Ten: Heavy Metal Fissure**

"Only one guard." Tai told the others and handed the scope to Takato.

"I don't think he's going to be much of problem alone against seven champions." Takato whispered as he peeked from behind a dune, looking over the glass-scape towards Full Metal City.

"Seven!?" Gomamon yelled. "I can take him alone!"

"We might not even need to digi-volve." Yolei offered. "Remember how destroying those black rings shut down the Gardromon?"

"One well aimed shot and he'll shut down." Zoe finished.

"Sniper rifle?" Matt asked Blake who just shock his head.

"Gravity's intensified. And I don't have the equipment to calculate the altered constants because of it. And I doubt Rika has the time for me to do it by hand." Blake explained. "I can't compensate at this distance. And you were basically joking."

"Please tell me you were." The response Matt got was a sheepish look as the brown haired boy tightened his grip on his bag.

"And there doesn't look to be any suitable cover closer to the gate." Tai added before a thought stuck him. "How much more intense? I can't feel anything."

"You wouldn't until it's three times more intense then that of Earth. This is just over twice the intensity."

"This is caused by the Time Fissure?" Takato asked. "This is turning the digital world into something really alien."

"Just be lucky it's not altering the atmosphere. I've seen it do strange and lethal things to the nitrogen."

"What's stopping it?" Joe asked worried.

"I'm guessing… the same thing that's keeping us from suffocating." Blake answered. "Data that's programmed to mimic a Terran Standard Atmosphere. The water. The food. It's all reprogrammed to support carbon based life."

"Err… Guys. This isn't your standard Gradromon guarding the gate." Takato mentioned.

"It's Andromon." Agumon announced. "I think. He looks different."

"Different? How?" Joe asked.

"He's got this orange finish." Takato noted.

"Orange?"

* * *

Hiroaki could do nothing but watch. Before him, he saw his son run up to him with a white haired foreign teenager, and a brown haired girl his age. It was the forigen girl who checked his vitals. In the corner of his vision, he saw two wild ones rushing the large silver one.

"Lightning Blade!"

"Pepper Breath!"

"Boom bubble!"

"Concussion." She concluded, grabbing something from inside her bag. "You guys go. I can handle this."

"There might be people inside that building." Takuya told the girl. "We have to get them out of there. Quickly." The girl nodded. Hiroaki tried to protest, but the teenager was quick to stop him. She injected something into his shoulder.

All he could do was watch as Takuya ran into the burning building, dodging the attacks from the wild ones.

"Boss! Think you could lead a hand?!" One of the wild ones called out.

"How about a couple of fists! It's Fighting Time!" Returned another teenager, a brown haired boy, rushing the machine, fist slamming into the metal.

A ring of fractal code appeared around the boy's fist. The teenager over him said something in warped Japanese. So warped, he couldn't understand what she was saying until she said "There is no end to it. Humans transferring mana though a quantum link. That's what the digi-vices do. Connect humans to their digimon partners." She started laughing manically.

"Marcus!" Hiroaki heard his son call out. "Swipe the fractal code with the digi-vice! Use it to evolve Agumon!"

Even Hiroaki could see an orange and grey device appear in the boy's hand as he used the scanner to swipe the code. In turn, the orange wild one was incased in the same fractal code, the cocoon began to swell and grow until it vanished and left a tall dinosaur in the smaller wild one's place.

While she was districted, Hiroaki managed to get away from his carer and run after his son.

She called after him but didn't run after him. A hysterical girl wearing overalls forced her to stay and calm the girl down. Kanbara, ignoring the throbbing headache, followed his son into the shop front. He ran upstairs, coughing and stumbling though the smoke and flame. He needed to get Takuya out of here.

He heard a creak. Then a scream. Hiroaki turned towards the door where the scream came from. It was open, and he could see a figure, tall and board with a long mane of blonde hair, wearing red and silver armour, crouching and holding burning wooden beam over his head. He stood up and threw the beam away and Hiroaki could see a young boy, not even Shinya's age, huddled in the middle of the room, and the flames. The figure had saved the little boy from being crushed.

"It's okay." The figure told the boy. "I'm going to get you out of here. Come on little buddy." The figure proceeded to pick up the boy and carried him out of the room. Hiroaki began to black out from breathing in the smoke. He swore that he heard his son call out to him as the world turned to black and the last thing he saw was a helmet with three horns and dark brown eyes underneath with a familiar determination.

* * *

"It's rust alright." Joe noted, looking at the immobile digimon. If he didn't know better, he'd say the cyborg digimon rusted up on the spot, but he didn't rule it out. Koichi slammed Loweemon's spear into the gate's lock. When it opened, Joe thought it was now much more likely.

Matt tired to take the altered scene in. Last time he was here, the city was all shiny and new and packed full of Guardromon. Now, instead of the theme colour of shiny chrome, it was replaced by rust orange. The Guardromon who had digi-volved to the next stage into Andromon were rusted into immobile statues.

"This is…" Tai started.

"Surreal?" Koichi asked.

"Everything looks like it aged a thousand years." Takato pointed out.

"But we were just here." Gabumon stated. "How can it age a thousand years?"

"Time is like a river." Blake stated simply. "Sometimes the currents can speed up, especially in the middle of a storm."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Yolei demanded. The only response she got was a chuckle, and something spoken in chinese. "Something funny?"

"We have to find the girl." Tai pointed out, interrupting Yolei. "Where's the control spire?"

"In the city square." Takato answered, he pointed down one of the roads.

"Okay. Lets spit up, see if we can't find this Rika girl in the process." Tai instructed. "If we don't all meet up in the city square in half an hour, call for back up."

Nods of agreement came from humans, digimon and hybrids alike as they split into four groups, only Koichi noticing the shadow going after one of the groups.

"Koichi?" Joe called out to the warrior or darkness. Koichi dismissed it as a trick of the light.

* * *

"Meteor Wing!"

"Hand of Fate!"

"Thunder Fist!"

"Mega Flame!"

Henry watched as the champion level digimon kept the Andromon's attention on them, keeping the attacks from injuring anymore citizens. Setting up a laptop, he had an idea to lure Andromon back into the digital world, with little faith four champions could take down an ultimate without any modify cards or advantages.

"I don't think we can do this." He moaned to himself as one of JP's fist hit Andromon… What happened caught Henry's and Marcus' attention.

"Nice. Shattered metalhead's armour." Marcus cheered as the metal cracked and spiderwebed.

"But metal is malleable. Not brutal." Henry pointed out as Clair walked up behind him.

"Come again?"

"Metal isn't like pottery." Clair explains. "Metal is malleable, meaning it can be bent into a new shape with enough force. Pottery brakes. Meaning someone turned metal into pottery. No. Chocolate."

"Chocolate?"

"Look. The metal is melting and it's not even close to the fire."

"That's not right." Henry observed. "And Andromon is moving kinda slow."

"Old Andromon there is a bit rusty." Terrormon commented. The was a powerful gust of wind as something landed behind the group, Gatomon's armour digi-volved form with Kari and two others on her back, a ten year old kid and Takuya's father. Clair ran up and helped Kari lower the man to the ground while the boy ran off.

Something fell out of the man's pocket that caught Clair's eye… a government ID badge. She took it before anyone else noticed it's existence. Nefertimon devolving helped.

"Mr. Kanbara! Can you hear me!?" Kari asked while shaking the man gently. The man opened his eyes and tried to say something. He pointed to something behind them, a tall, blonde haired figure in red and silver armour with the fire and burning building behind him. He watched as the figure was cocooned and emerging from the code was his son.

"Dad!" Takuya ran up to the man.

"He's fine." Clair assured the boy. "Nanite shot is regulating his CO2 levels. He's just hibernating so they can expel the excess car…" She stopped herself, reminding herself that this was a twelve year old she was explaining it to. "So he doesn't die from smoke inhalation, tiny robots in his blood are collecting the carbon, storing it safely until it can be exhaled. Does that help?"

"A little." Takuya admitted. "I don't pay much attention is science." Kari chuckled at the boy.

Clair quickly looked at the ID badge. Most of it was in Kanji and Hiragana, except for what was written on the top in Latin alphabet. The mechanics of the translator allowed her to see the six letters stand out from the rest, above the photo of Hiroaki Kanbara. HYPNOS.

"Alright!" She heard Marcus yell as the Andromon disintegrated. Clair looked up to see the ribbon of fractal code spiral around a sphere of light.

"Something's wrong!" Henry called out as the ribbon began to disintegrate, and the sphere dimmed into an egg, which then disintegrated, like the Andromon.

"What happened?" Kari asked.

"I think it was deleted." Clair observed. She didn't have time to gage everyone's reactions as the fog barrier began to lift.

* * *

From her hotel balcony, Nene watched as the battle unfolded, her hair caught in the wind.

"Impressive." She noted. "I'm going to have to keep a close eye on them." She then looked at a google wearing boy trying to clam a hysterical girl in overalls down. "And him. I wonder…"

She also noticed a distorted figure beginning to take shape in the river. She couldn't help but frown and turn to the woman in the cloak. She was more preoccupied by the Mikemon in her lap then with the battles raging just a mile from them.

"What should we do about Machinedramon?" She asked.

"Let Yamaki handle that." She answered. "He's too weak from crossing the time distortion to do anything yet."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea."

"I know Nene. But trust me for now."

She nodded, unsure of what else to do.

* * *

"…and I reminded her that nobody suffers form insanity in my family. We all enjoy every moment of it."

Tai chuckled, contrasting the concerned look Agumon was giving the dimension jumper. "You okay Agumon?" Tai asked. "It was a good joke."

"It does make you think." Agumon answered.

"You don't look thoughtful." Blake pointed out. "Sigmond Freud established that no mortal can keep a secret. I don't think he ever studied digimon psychology."

"Something's bothering you." Agumon accused. "This morning, you seem more distant, and taller and uncomfortable."

"Betrayed by Freudian Science." Blake laughed. "It's nothing big. Just a lot of little things so far."

"Then talk to us." Tai offered. "Or is this about setting up my sister with Takuya."

"That…" He stopped.

"So it is about my sister?"

"Sort of." He answered. "Seeing Takuya and Kari together. It's like seeing sparks fly between them. Basically, Destiny is malleable by our will, but also by events that need to occur."

"Then why does my sister need to be with Takuya?" Tai asked. "You making sound like the universe wants it."

"Not the universe. And then there's that smartphone of yours." Blake said changing the subject.

"Yeah. What about it?" Tai asked, pulling his D-Terminal out of his jacket pocket.

"What year is it?" He asked. "2002?"

"Yeah."

"And you've got gigabit wi-fi, facebook, smartphones…"

"You've lost me." Tai interrupted. "Facebook?"

"There's an average standard of technology across earths. Some are head. Some are behind." Blake explained. "But, on average, smartphones shouldn't be appearing for another five years. Social networking doesn't become mainstream for few years. And wifi of this standard… eleven years away."

"But your world has to be way ahead of ours." Tai protested.

"Because of an ancient space ship." Blake returned. "There's a reason. Joey highlighted the question to me this morning, and I've been meditating over it for some time now. Does your world's connection to the digital world account for the acceleration in technological advancement?"

"Did you ask Izzy?"

"Joey already did."

"Tai. Blake." Agumon called. "I think I hear something." Tai looked up, and saw something disappear behind a corner.

"Hey!" He called out and ran towards corner. There was a flash of blue light, so it came to no surprise to him that when he made it to the corner, there was no one to be found, just more frozen Andromon. Blake and Agumon caught up with him.

"You saw something?" Blake asked.

"Someone. I think." Tai stepped forward. There was a crunch. They looked down. Tai had stepped on something metal. It was strangely newer then the rest of the city, silver and shiny.

"Oh no." Blake gasped. "Not them. Not here."

"What?" Agumon asked.

"The most efficient killing machine creation has ever seen." Blake answered. "Archon Reapers."

"If it's a machine, then won't it rust like everything else here?"

"The alloy it's made out of won't oxidise for another billion years." Blake told the small reptile. "I should know, it's the same alloy my phone's casing is made from and it's…" He rubbed something between his fingers. "It's wet?"

"Over here!" Agumon called out. While Blake had been talking, the orange dinosaur had wondered further up the ally. When they caught up to him, there was a startled gasp.

Rika lied aginst the wall, eyes wild, breath shaky, and with a hand over a gushing wound over her arm. When she registered the two teenage boys, she became certain that she was safe.

"You need to get out of here now!" She yelled. "There are these things…"

"I know." Blake knelled by her side. "We're going to get you out of here."

"I'm not leaving without Renamon!" She argued. "It's my fault she's here! I wanted to make her digivolve! I wanted to prove I could make her digivolve!"

"You seem really concerned for a pile of data." Tai pointed out.

"She…" She started but then became silent. She turned her head towards Agumon, then back to the brown haired boy. Their faces held expressions of worry, but their eyes betrayed their bitterness towards her. "Renamon told me to run and I didn't." She moaned. "She's probably absorbed by those Guardromon now."

"Maybe not." Agumon tried to assure her. "She could just be waiting."

"Come on. One of our friends has some medical supplies. He'll fix you up quick, and there's safety in numbers." Tai reminded her.

Rika nodded, not in any position to argue. And when she heard someone scream, she doubled her efforts to get upright.

* * *

It was quite, despite the conversation Takato had managed to start with Gabumon and the enquires for food from Guilmon, Matt couldn't help but notice the body language the brunette was displaying. He knew that time fissure did strange things, making his brother nearly relive the worst moment of his journey. Sure. It made him uncomfortable, but compared to the anxiety that Takato displayed. He wasn't the only one.

"You okay Gabumon?" Matt asked.

"There's something here." Gabumon answered.

"Organic matter detected." The four turned to see a thin silver skeletal figure behind them aiming a canon at the blonde rockstar. And before they could react, it exploded in a shower of sparks, giving a shriek of electrical pain before collapsing into a heap.

Behind it, at first reminded Takato, Matt and Gabumon of WereGarurumon, but the rookie digimon noticed that there was a human smell to it.. him. And Matt could see some sort of chrome rifle in the creature's claws. They all had the idea in the back of their heads that this creature wasn't a digimon.

And it talked…

"You alright mates?"

"They won't be soon." Came a voice. "You're just in time for the show boys."

* * *

"Hurricane Wave!"

Her attacks did little but knock back the silver skeleton like figure as it advanced on the three of them. Thankfully, it was enough but it was wearing here out quickly as they doubled back.

"In here!" Yolei yelled as she held open a metal door. Both Halsemon and Kazumon dived for the open door before Yolei slammed it shut and locked it. She stepped back from the door, just before a loud bang shock the room. And another. It was trying to ram down the door. Not surprising since Yolei noticed that the machine's design didn't leave much for dexterity. A canon mounted to one arm, a sickle like blade on the other, and no hands to speak of. The blade was extremely sharp too. Had to be when it sliced though the door like it was made from butter, rather then rusted steel. The blade made a long slice though the door. On the other side, Yolei could see a single LED light that represented an eye.

Halsemon and Kazumon prepared their attacks.

"Electro Shocker!" They heard a digimon call out an attack.

Two arcs of electricity hit the skeleton of silver and a shower of spark shot out of each of it's joints. It fell backwards, limp and rigged. Yolei let out a breath she didn't release she was holding.

"Well, that'll be a useful technique." Zoe and Yolei heard Tai say.

"That'll certainly cover a few weaknesses." Another voice said. Blake's.

"Just be careful, you don't want to over do it." A third voice said. It sounded like… "Rookies like Agumon don't have much in the way of energy. Modify cards will just over tax him."

Zoe opened the door to see Agumon standing over the fallen metal figure. Behind him was Tai, Blake… and Rika. She wasn't took happy to see her, until she spotted the blood, and bitterness turned to concern for the young girl.

Rika on the other hand was stunned to see a digimon she had never seen in the card game. A pink fairy digimon with an eye visor.

"You guys okay?" Tai asked the three concerned.

"Just short on breath." Yolei answered. "What was that thing?"

"Something you don't want to meet in a dark alleyway." Blake answered, taking out his phone and pointing it to the inanimate metal skeleton. "These things destroyed their creators, doing what they were programmed for."

"Kill?" Yolei whimpered, hoping for something else, but well aware that her hopes would be dashed by his next answer. What she didn't expect was the cold and direct answer to come from the older boy.

"Pest control."

Tai was about to ask him to elaborate when he heard Joe's voice resonate from his Digivice, the crest of honesty lit up on the small LED screen.

"Tai. Tai. Where are you guys?"

"Zoe? You guys okay?" Koichi's voice spoke from her digivice, the warrior symbol of darkness appearing in jet black on the pick digivice screen.

"We're fine Koichi." Zoe answered over the device. "Just ran into some trouble."

Rika was puzzled by the different shape but still recognised the device. Then the voice referring to the unidentified digimon as Zoe. And she didn't mistake the glare she got from the digimon when she said trouble.

"Guys! Zoe!" She remembered that boy, Koji calling out. Now that she thought about it, the voice sounded similar to that girl…

Wait.

"We found her Joe. You might want to get some bandages ready." Tai told his medical student friend over the device as the girl he was carrying suddenly gasped, stumbled back, and yelped in pain before collapsing to the ground. Humans, digimon and hybrids gathered around to help the girl up, while Joe yelled for answers.

Rika just pointed at the hybrid, her mouth moving, but unable to make anymore then stutters. Had Zoe not been concerned about the girl's well being, she might have found it amusing to see the 'Digimon Queen' reduced to this state.

The one word she did manage to say was "How…"

Blake chuckled, well aware of what the red head was asking. Tai bit his lip, next to understand the girl's question. Then Zoe, wondering if the girl would now think that her friends would be targets for her fox…

Now that she thought about it, where is Renamon?

Either way, it would take some time to explain to her.

* * *

When he began to regain conciseness, Hiroaki began to stir, only to spring upright when he recalled the memory of Takuya running into a burning building. Then came a painful headache.

"You shouldn't get up too quickly." Said a voice. Hiroaki twisted his head, seeing the voice's owner, offering a bottle of water in his gloved hand, opened with a thin layer of water dripping off the plastic container. The familiar face of his son smiled at him, a nervous, cautious smile, unsure wether to smile or not. The older Kanbara looked around, the charred building now dripping wet after firefighters let the fire burn out, staved of fuel and nowhere else to go without getting assaulted by water. Around him were the creators and burns of an intense battle, solders running around, providing what ever assistance was needed. Amazingly, no one looked hurt.

"What happened?" Hiroaki asked.

"A microstorm." Takuya offered. "I heard some of the other say. They seemed to appear out of nowhere."

Like Clair said, Hiroaki accepted the excuse, not because he believed it, but because Takuya looked to believe it himself.

"What are you doing here?" Hiroaki asked. Takuya composed himself, having already prepared the excuse. "I thought you said you were visiting Tommy."

"I did. But Yukata needed to go to an AA meeting. I wanted to make sure he got here safe." Takuya then went on the offensive. "What are you doing here? Mum called and told me you were going to be late home."

"Mr. Kanbara!" One of the solders called.

"We'll talk about this later when we get home." Hiroaki said as he got up to address the solder, only to run into someone.

"Sorry." The girl said, looking at the man. "Mr. Kanbara. You're up. I bought you some coffee. Takuya said you liked it strong." The girl held out a paper cup with a coffee shop logo on the side, steam still rising from the hole in the top. Hiroaki regard the girl with a quick look as she offered one of the four cups she had in a cardboard tray, and a paper bag of something. He took the coffee and muttered his thanks, still confused about the situation and made a note to ask his son about it later.

Kari reached the bench she left Takuya and Gatomon. Gatomon came out from under the bench receive a cake in the shape of a fish. She didn't much care for the shape, but munched on the food regardless. A boy, Mikey Kudo had suggested the cafe once his friend had calm down. Well, more districted from seeing Gatomon.

The two sat together, the sunset bathing the ruined park in orange light. Kari would glance at the brown eyed twelve year old, who had his hat and googles off, and the wind playing with his messy brown hair. She couldn't help but notice that his mind was on something, likely his brother's hardship since becoming a hybrid like himself, only with an uncooperative sprit. Absentmindedly, her hand brushed by Takuya's. He noticed, turning to Kari, who looked away, a reddening blush blossoming across her face.

They heard something, leaves rustling. Gatomon dropped her treat to investigate, running up the tree. An orange streak leapt out in a panic and ended up on the ground. It was a digimon, the Flamemon that attacked Renamon in Shinjuku Park. Kari gasped, because of what he didn't notice before. Among the tribal markings, were long healed scars, littered all over his body. How he didn't notice them before was beyond him. And around his wrist was a whistle.

Gatomon landed in front of him. She didn't understand why, but there was something familiar about this digimon. Almost…

"Hey!" Kari called out as the digimon fled, escaping up a building. Takuya charred him as far as the wall before one of the firefighters turned to see what was going on. He couldn't change into Agunimon with the chance of people noticing. And somehow, he didn't think it would be the last time he would see that Flamemon.

* * *

It was a lot to take in. Real digimon were one thing, but hybrids were something else. And then there was the trying to get the non-liner history of the digi-destine straight in her head. Right now, she figured that Tai's group saved the digital world four years ago, while Zoe's group traveled back to it's distant past and saved it thousands of years ago. Then there was Blake, who was something else entirely. She couldn't find his partner digimon, nor did he seem to miss one. He didn't look like a hybrid, but she wasn't sure how to tell the difference, she assumed it wasn't obvious. And the way he seemed to distance himself from the other digi-destine. He wasn't a local, that was obvious, but his grasp of Japanese could pass for a teenager who's lived in Tokyo since birth. But he never used first person ownership when referring to the real world. It was only ever 'the Human world' or 'Your world' or just plain Earth. And the tech she caught a glimpse of. His watch, his phone, they didn't seem to belong on her world. And then there was the gun, the silver handgun that was strapped to his leg. She had seen it once when they heard something behind them. Digimon and Hybrids took positions to attack and defend their human friends and partners, she was surprised to see the thing appear in his hand, aimed steady down the way they came. And the semi-google head who laughed about some obscure soccer reference Tai had made vanished as his stance change to something familiar that reminded her of Renamon. Combat ready and merciless. It wasn't until the weapon despaired and the children's fears unrealised that the battle hardened and ready warrior disappeared, and the care free teenager returned.

When Rika asked Tai who he was, all he said what "You wouldn't believe me."

Even with all the evidence in front of him, and having been aware of the Digital World before hand, Tai still had trouble believing it himself.

"Rika!"

The sudden yell caught the girl off guard. "Renamon!" Everyone turned in the direction of the voice. They saw the digital fox standing down an ally, fur singed and dirty. "Because you're my partner Rika."

"Rena…"

"Please Rika. Run. Get away from here, while you can." Her voice was weak, barley above a whisper.

"No." They heard Rika's voice, but it was from behind the group. "You can't."

"What's going on?" Yolei demanded.

"Temporal echo. Imprint of the past, and the future." Blake explained. "Time literally collapse in a time fissure. History and destiny is present."

"I must destroy the enemies of the emperor." Came a computerised voice.

"Andromon?" Tai questioned outloud, turning down the road they just came.

"Lightning Blade!"

"Look out!" A gust of wind pushed everyone forward as a shock wave of Andromon's attack narrowly missed them. Tai looked up to see a black ring around Andromon's arm.

"Is that the best you got Tin Can!?" Came another voice, noticeably human, but it wasn't one Tai recognised. A pair of large, clawed feet landing an inch away from his nose. Looking up, he found that those feet belonged to a tall and imposing wolf man, covered in black fur, wearing a blue sleeveless top and a pair of loose jeans, welding a pair of handguns.

"Wolf-boy?!" Blake questioned as the humanoid wolf fired shots in rapid bursts, ice blue laser bursts hit Andromon with enough force to knock him back and leave burns on his armour.

"You know that thing?!" Zoe demanded.

"First soul I ever saved." Blake answered cryptically.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Tai questioned.

"You tell me."

"Fox Tail Inferno!" Another Digimon ran over them, it's paws phased though their bodies, like it wasn't even there, but it's attack pelted white fire over the android digimon, grabbing it's attention.

"We need to keep going." Agumon argued.

"Agreed." Tai seconded, getting up with everyone else. He and Blake had to help Rika up, and they moved hastily towards the city square.

* * *

"I see what the problem is." Datamon informed the three. "I'll have it fixed in no time."

Joe for reasons he kept from Koichi has uncomfortable around this Datamon, and he was sure that the warrior of Darkness was aware of his unease, as he made a couple attempts to assure him that he was a decent guy, just a little anti-social. Considering he was playing with the added digi-script on the control spire, he was unease by it, along with the hundreds of frozen Guardromon standing around them, expecting one of them to attack at any moment.

And Gomamon flinging insults to one of the still machines wasn't helping his nerves either. And worse, he couldn't reach Matt or Takato. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Hey! Joe! Koichi!" They heard Tai call out. The trio turned to see group coming towards them, standing out was a bleeding and tired Rika. Without wasting anytime, Joe opened his doctor's bag, and had Tai lie the girl down where he examined the girl, cleaned her wounds and dressed the serious ones.

"What happened to her?" Koichi ventured to ask.

"You don't want to know." Zoe answered. "Trust me on that." Once he was done, Rika sat up, but standing on her own weight made her dizzy, Tai and Koichi had to help her stay upright.

"I still can't get though to Matt and Takato." Yolei announced.

"It doesn't matter. They'll just end up in the eye of the fissure before it closes since we entered the fissure." Blake assured her. "We just need to close it."

"Can't you just do what you did last time?" Tai asked. Blake shock his head.

"The cause was outside the fissure. Reversing time outside the fissure is easy because cause and effect is still absolute. This time, the cause is with us. This time, the control spire is trying to amplify energy from Rika to make Renamon evolve to her champion stage. Only problem is, the spire is still preventing digimon from evolving."

"Then why would it do both?" Gomamon asked.

"Because it's been programmed to do both." Datamon explained. "But the Emperor must have used a programming language that doesn't accept conflicting commands. And instead of crashing, it keeps running until it eventually tears itself apart." He turned to the assembled group with a length of chalk in hand. "It should be good now."

"With Rika inside the fissure, where cause and effect is broken, we need to restart the events Rika set in motion." Blake turned to the red head. "There was a moment where the bond between you and Renamon became so powerful that you provided the energy needed for her to reach her next stage. Your sincerity that you wouldn't leave your partner's side, no matter the cost to yourself. You felt it once, now I'm asking you to look into your heart again, find that moment, hold on to it tight, let it hurt, let it burn, let it consume you again."

"Forget everything you think you know about digimon." Zoe added. "Forget the idea that they're just data. Forget the idea that they're just built for fighting. Don't just look in your heart, look in Renamon's."

"Everything you do for your digimon brings you two closer." Yolei pressed. "And everything she's done for you was to make you happy. Everything she's done was to prove you're the best. Everything she's done was to protect you. Now do something for her. Prove you're the best. Prove you can make her digivolve."

She dug deep. Tears began to sting her eyes, but she let them flow. She let them run. "Don't leave me." She whispered.

"Rika." She couldn't tell which of the girls called her name. It began to build again, and there was one way to let it out. She took a deep breath, and at the top of her lungs, she yelled.

"Renamon!"

In response, her D-arc lit up and beeped repeatidly as the control spire took on a white glow. A purple flash filled the area…

* * *

Matt wasn't sure what happened. First that laugh, that awful laugh, then his vision filled with white, and finally, a flash of purple and he was in the middle of a battle field.

"Nova blast!"

"Shadow Meteor!"

"Fox Tail Inferno!"

"Lightning Blade!"

Most of the Guadromon remained frozen but one Andromon had a dark ring that refused to shatter, and kept attacking. An unfamiliar digimon seemed to take the battle against the controlled digimon, and with it, the Digimon Queen, who seemed barking orders to defend rather then destroy.

"Is that all you've got Tin Can!?" The werewolf that he meet a moment ago yelled as he charged in. The fox digimon followed along with Blake and Zoe who had a length of cable. They charged at either side of Andromon, the cable hit the charging Andromon. Zoe flew over Blake as the two ran behind him. It didn't take much more then gravity to force Andromon to the ground.

"Now! Renamon!" Rika yelled.

"Dragon Wheel!"

The attack was launched before Andromon had a chance to counter it. He shielded himself, one arm over the other. Rika smiled when she realised in that moment, they'd won. The attack had shattered the ring. Andromon had been freed. A loud cheer sounded from humans and digimon as Matt approached the group while Zoe and Joe helped Andromon up, with Datamon following.

"What's going on?" Matt demanded.

"Well, we got the girl and saved the day." Koichi answered. "All in a days work."

"Hey! I was doing just fine until you guys showed up!" Rika protested.

"Oh yeah, because you weren't bleeding out in an ally." Tai reminded her. He glanced in the direction of the… werewolf for lack of any other word to describe him, weary and curiously.

"That's the problem with these rings when they attach themselves to machine digimon." Datamon explained as he plugged a device into Andromon. A device no one else noticed he had. "Most of these guys have a hole in their operating system. But, a quick reprogram and he'll be his old self again."

Tai walked up to the immobile digimon, wondering why the control ring didn't shatter immediately after the control spire was reconfigured. Most of the Guardromon's rings shattered once it happened, but why not Andromon's.

"Here we go." Datamon told them as Andromon's eyes began to shine with life again. He tired to speak but he couldn't form much more then basic sounds and static.

"What did you do to him!?" Tai demanded, only to be retained by Blake and Agumon in order to keep from hitting the little machine digimon.

"It's not my fault." Datamon protested. "It sounds like his hard drive's fragmented.

"Where…." Andromon started. "Who… Who are…" What he tried to say after that was lost in slurs and static.

"Andromon! It's me. Tai!"

"Tai… You're… Selling… Ties?" Andromon asked as his speeches turned to static for a moment. "Jigsaw… Faces…" Then after a moment, the static cut out. "Digidestine. It has been a while."

"Yes it has Andromon." Joe agreed turning to the little digimon. "Thanks for helping him."

"No problem. I needed the help to reprogram all these Gradromon." Datamon said. "It'll be quicker with a second pair of hands. Right."

"Correct." As to demonstrate, Andromon walked up to a nearby Gardromon. Cabled extended from his arm and attached themselves to the boiler shaded robot. "Though it will take some time to reprogram them all."

"You kids have done enough already. We can take it from here." Datamon assured them. "But let me repair that television set Koichi said was destroyed. It'll save you the track across the desert and you can rest a bit before going on your way."

"Hold on!" Matt chose that moment to speak up. "Where did her come from?" He pointed to Datamon. "Who's he?" He pointed to the werewolf. "And where's Takato? And Gabu…"

"Guilmon!" They heard Takato call out. "Guilmon!"

"That answers one question." Yolei pointed out as the google headed elementary student ran up to the group. He stopped and caught his breath. "What's wrong Takato?"

"Guilmon…" He huffed. "Can't… find… him… anywhere."

"What's in your hand?" Koichi asked, reaching out for the boy's fist. When he opened it, Matt's heart fell. It was a Guilmon Keychain.

He then released that he was holding something too. He didn't need to open it to figure out what it was, he already knew. Memories of the werewolf shooting a vicious looking machine, and a white square of cloth appearing out of nowhere came flooding back. All he said was one word "Piedmon."

Rika, who was now by Kyubimon's side, didn't miss Matt's nearly silent whisper. In her head, connections were made. The keyring, and one of the most dreaded cards in the game meant that Takato's partner was right in his hand. She pulled the deck out of the holder on her belt and shuffled though the cards. She recalled an upgrade card that saved a player from a certain loss when a Piedmon card showed up. What was it…

She found it.

"Here. Put the keychain on the ground and swipe this though your digivice." She ordered, offering the card. She couldn't walk far from her partner, but Yolei took the card from her and passed it to the younger google head. He looked at the card. Rollback. He did what he was told to do, the card swiped though his digivice. The keychain glowed and expanded until it was Guilmon's proper size. The red dinosaur blinked.

"Takato. I'm hungry." This earned a chuckle from most of the assembled, but Takato hugged the digimon regardless. Then he passed the card to Matt, who did the same. Gabumon keychain on the ground, swipe the card, and the keychain expanded until Gabumon was himself again.

"Feeling better Gabumon?" Matt asked his partner.

"Still a little stiff but fine." He assured him before turning to the werewolf. "Thanks for the help back there."

The werewolf raised an eyebrow but didn't question the hand offered. He took it and shook it. "Happy to help. Just didn't release you were in good hands already." He turned to Blake, nodded and asked "Aren't you going to introduce them?"

"Just them? Or the whole group?" Blake asked. "Guys. Ladies." Blake turned to Zoe and Yolei before addressing everyone. "Meet Wolf Boy, or as it says on his Ident card, Glenn Kame. Aspiring star cruiser pilot, alpha wolf, guitarist in his spare time, and fantastic rugby player. Not a half bad soccer player either." He muttered the last sentence to Tai.

"Says Peter Pan who missed the goal completely." The werewolf muttered.

"That was one time. And Zorath gives me enough grief over that incident. I don't need you to add to it." Blake protested. "And you weren't being chased around the distortion world by an angry Blaziken. Getting back on topic. Soccer fanatic, boy band, medical student, forward and cleaver girl, daydreamer, spoilt tomboy, short fuse, former prince of darkness, Agumon, Gabumon, Gomamon, Guilmon, and I think Renamon." He pointed to Tai, Matt, Joe, Takato, Rika, Zoe and Koichi in rapid secession before pointing out the digimon, who all but Kyubimon had returned to their rookie forms.

"Did you just call me spoilt?" Rika demanded.

"Short fuse?" Zoe questioned.

"What is wrong with you?" Matt whispered to Blake who just chuckled. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"It's his hobby." Glenn assured the blonde. "Boy band?"

"I'm the lead singer of a band." Matt clarified. "And there are a few crazy fans."

"A few?!" Tai said, feigning shock. "Really."

"Joining us back, or are you trying to keep everything together back as basecamp?" Blake asked, before Matt could remark.

"Nah. I kinda parked illegally outside the city." Glenn answered. "You guys go ahead."

"Got it!" Datamon called out, carrying the television set into the open. It looked fixed, held together by two lengths of duck tape. "It works. But I should have it really fixed next time you guys need it."

"Well it was nice to meet you Mr. Kame." Yolei said politely.

"Please. Mr. Kame is what people call my father when he isn't on duty." Glenn protested. "Everyone just calls me Glenn. Almost." He pointed a sharp look as Blake. "Right Peter."

"Right Wolf Boy."

"One more thing." Tai called out. "Blake said you where the first soul he ever saved. What does that mean?"

It became obvious that it was an inside joke between the two of them, when Glenn chuckled. "You'll figure it out funny boy."

"Come on. It's getting late." Takato pointed out, as digivices appeared in hands, and were aimed at the television set. "Digiport open!"

* * *

Beep beep.

Izzy's laptop began to beep, just as he and Yoshi got to the Damon house, running into Cody and Tommy along the way, both of them became aware of Rita's entry into the digital world. He opened it just in time for seven humans to end up in a tangle on the lawn, two humans managed to avoid the pile up, along with five digimon. Renamon took Rika from Blake to keep her up.

"Ow. How'd you do that?' Takato asked as he got out from under the pile.

"I get better with age." Blake answered. "Yoshi. Could you convoy Rika home. And make up a story about an attempted mugging or something."

"Sure." She said, slightly disgruntled, but with the girl's injuries, it would be a bad idea to have her walk though the front door alone, not to mention walking at all, it looks like she's sprained her ankle.

"I also got a call from Clair." Izzy told Tai. "She said that the digimon was deleted when they destroyed it. But she also said that the digimon's data might have been compromised by the time fissure."

"That's harsh." Tai muttered.

"Are they okay?" Zoe asked.

"They're fine." Izzy assured the girl. "But Takuya needs someone to take Shinya home. He was going to do it himself but his father got involved."

"I'll take him." Zoe volunteered. Save Koji, Zoe lived closet to the Kanbaras. Though it was out of the way. Since Koji was staying with his Mom and brother tonight, she would be he next chose logically speaking.

Besides, she wasn't going to leave the boy alone. Not with Grumblemon in his head anyway.

"Let meet up outside my school tomorrow." Takato put forward. "Chikao said he wasn't feeling well but he needs to feed the animals over the weekend."

"Fine." Tai nodded before turning to Koichi, who seemed to be shaking. "What's up Koichi?"

"It…" Koichi stammered. "It's Koji."


	12. Truth about Darkness

**Chapter Eleven: Truth about Darkness**

Hiroaki wasn't required to see the transport of the wild one back to HYPNOS. Yamaki had him finish up, leaving directly for home. Had he known his boss would have given him the rest of the evening, he would have asked Takuya to wait around, maybe get to know the girl he was with little more, even tease him about her. He couldn't help but smile. His boy was growing up and maturing quickly. He was too caught up in his thoughts that he ran into something.

A paper bag hit the ground, cans and foodstuffs spilling out.

"Oh dear." A pale, frail and tired looking woman gathered up the contents. Hiroaki helping her.

"I'm sorry." Hiroaki apologised.

"It's quite alright." The woman assured him. "Nothing seems broken." The woman looked up at Hiroaki as he picked up the bag and her smile vanished. "You're Takuya's father. Aren't you."

He stepped back in shock, not expecting the woman to know his son, let alone his relation to him. He examined the woman closely, her black hair ties back in a lose tail, her bright blue eyes that seemed to contradict her current condition. It then struck Hiroaki who this woman reminded him of, or rather two boys.

"Your Koichi and Koji's mother." Hiroaki said finally. "It's nice to meet you Mis Minamoto."

Tomoko was then taken aback by the man's confusion. "It's Kimura actually. I divorced from Kosei some time ago." She informed the Kanbara Patriarch as she pushed back some stay strains of hair, just as the train pulled into the station, and Tomoko took the bag back. They boarded the train and continued their conversation. "I've been meaning to ask Takuya how he, Koji and Koichi meet. He and Koji attend the same school correct?"

Hiroaki nodded, just as his phone rang. "Hello?" He answered, hoping it wasn't Yamaki changing his mind.

"Mr. Kanbara?" A woman asked. "It's Satomi Minamoto. Koji's Mother. We meet at the Jiyugoka School Fair." Hiroaki scolded himself for not remembering the woman. "I'm sorry but Koji isn't answering and I'm having trouble reaching anyone at your home, but I need Koji to make sure Koji locked up the house before he left."

"He's staying with my son tonight?" Hiroaki asked confused.

"That's what I've been told. Takuya said it wasn't a problem. It seemed quite regular."

"This is the first I've heard about Koji staying the night. And what do you mean regular?"

"He's been staying with your son regularly for the past year Mr. Kanbara." There was concern rising in Satomi's voice. "Hasn't he?"

Tomoko looked at the man confusingly. She knew that Koji was staying with her and Koichi tonight. Something about his parents taking a romantic weekend in Fijiyoshida.

On the train car ahead of them, it had surprised Takuya to find that his father told him to go home, while he remained in Koto. But, however it surprised him, Takuya found himself escorting Kari home. But there was also something else on his mind.

"Define familiar." Clair asked of the goggle wearing brunette. "How did he feel familiar to you?"

"Like…" Takuya paused for a moment to find the words. JP, TK and Marcus waited for his response. They had been concerned since hearing about another digimon showing up, JP more so, aware that this was the digimon that appeared earlier. "Like a relative you never really see, the last time you saw them, you were too young to remember, but you still knew who they were."

Kari nodded in agreement. Clair persed her lips in thought for a moment, her thoughts drawing the same conclusion. But how it was possible was beyond her. She was lost in her thoughts that she nearly missed her phone ringing. Her HUD had flashed twice, and told her it was from Blake's branch of the Terranet. She answered the device quickly. "Yeah?"

"It's Duskmon. He's after Koji." Blake told the scienctist.

"We're passing though Odabia now. I'll rally the troops." She hung up the phone and turned to Takuya. "Duskmon is after Koji. You remember how he looked when he came back though."

"Yeah. We need to get to Koji first." Takuya said.

"Who's Duskmon?" Marcus asked JP.

"Bad news." He answered. "He used to be the warrior of Darkness before the sprits were purified. Now, and I don't know how, he's after Koichi."

"Isn't Koichi the warrior of Darkness?" Henry asked from behind them. The question went unanswered. TK, Davis, Kari and Sora missed the Odabia station, not by accident either. They were joining Takuya, JP, Marcus, Henry and Clair to help Koji.

Problem was that Hiroaki Kanbara and Tomoko Kimora got off on the same platform. They walked four blocks, while the children ran ahead.

"Key's in the flower pot by the door!" Takuya yelled to Davis, who found a bronze key easy. But it was unnecessary when Sora pushed the door open.

"Go in. We'll run interference." Clair told Takuya, as Henry and Kari nodded.

"Becareful." Kari whispered as the others as they called their digimon from their digi-vices. With them by their side, they entered the apartment, not bothering to leave their shoes at the door. Marcus was stopped by Clair.

"Eyes open. Mouth shut." She whispered to Marcus. "This is not an arena. Honorer holds no merit here." Marcus nodded. He knew that he couldn't be an ultimate fighter here.

"Takuya?" Sora asked when the hybrids stopped in the middle of the dinning room.

"What is it?" Davis asked.

"He's here." Takuya hissed.

"Luner Plasma!"

* * *

Outside, Clair could hear two pairs of footsteps, both quick, one with a limp, and the other falling behind. Kari and Henry saw two adults arrive, one Kari recognised as Takuya's father, the other both guessed was Koichi and Koji's biological mother. Clair on the other hand produced a wallet and flashed it at the two.

"Building Standards Committee. I'm sorry, but this apartment is…" Clair was interrupted by Duskmon calling out his attack, a loud crash, and a pained yell. And in that moment, they were plunged into darkness.

It was Takuya's.

"Hand of Fate!"

"Thunder Fist!"

Hiroaki ran pass the girl. Tomoko followed, ignoring Clair's protests, and several flashes of lights. Inside, both adults stiffened as a battle took place in the Kimora Dinning Room. Just as they were entering, a tall, long haired man in an armour of red eyes was punched square in the chest by two others, one looked like an angel, the other, a bulky blue and yellow beetle. The result was the man being pushed though the wall and out into the street. There was a sound of tires screeching, as if a driver of a car tired to avoid something at the very last minute.

There were three other monsters, one was a pink bird, the other, a blue lizard, and the third, a tall young man in a suit of orange and silver armour. That was until a cocoon of blue ribbons encased him and left a young brunette boy, passed out in his place. Hiroaki Kanbara stumbled back at the sight of his son. Tomoko Kimora gasped and then noticed the other children in her apartment, including Koichi's long time friend TK, who rushed out of the apartment, not even noticing either of the adults, while the angel and beetle flew out of the hole left in the wall.

As when things couldn't get weirder, the stuffed animal that hung around a young boy's neck talked.

"Hit the Road Duskmon!"

"Terriormon."

"Henry. Momenti."

* * *

"Seriously! You want to talk about it now!?" Blake demanded as he turned into another street, tires screeching as he didn't bother to slow down. He knew that traffic in Tokyo was bad, but as they got further east, the worse it got, forcing him to make dangerous and reckless choices he only ever made in an emergency. Joe, Tai and Izzy were in the back seat with Koichi in front, his concern for his brother's wellbeing overriding any concern for his own. Joe had his eyes closed since he started the car. Tai was a little braver, but flinched every time the car seemed to veer out of control, or lean just a little too close towards the road for comfort. Izzy was so engrossed about his line of questioning, and his laptop that he seemed to be obvious to how many traffic laws were being bluntly ignored and violated. He was now free to question Blake about resent events. "I'm kinda busy driving into oncoming traffic!"

"Among other things." Tai muttered under his breath "How fast are you going any…"

He was interrupted by a screech of his tires when Koichi grabbed the wheel, causing the car to avoid the falling digimon. Blake didn't think to serve, only grab the hand brake and stop the car before they passed the apartment building. Inside, no one felt the force of all four wheels locking, and the jeep coming to a sudden stop. Their inner ears tingled slightly but that was it. It was as if the force was dampened by another of the car's futuristic features. Izzy wouldn't dismiss that theory right away yet, considering how possible it might be. Koichi left the car in a hurry, followed by Tai and Izzy.

"The idiot needs to watch were he's going." Blake muttered as he unbuckled the seat belt and exited the car. "He better not have done any damage." It took Joe a moment to consider opening his eyes, not sure if they were still moving or not.

Outside, Blake inspected the fender of the vehicle, showing no concern for who they might have hit, while Tai had called Agumon out of his digi-vice, Koichi had quickly sprite evolved as soon as he was out, Loweemon standing firm once he emerged from the cocoon of fractal code, and Izzy observed from behind the car, Tentomon beside him in reserve for any reason he needed to fight. They were joined by Beetlemon, and Angeamon who had flown down from the hole left in the Kimora apartment, standing between their friends and the crater left by Duskmon's fall.

There was an uneasy quite as both sides stood ready to attack, the tension in the air thick.

From above, Tomoko was surprised to see her eldest son arrive with three older boys, and even more surprised to watch the same cocoon of light encase him, and emerge a tall man dressed in black and gold armour with a lion head theme.

"Mum?"

She heard Koji call out to her as he emerged from the living room. His blue eyes fell onto Takuya as he was crowded by Kari, Sora, Davis, Biyomon and Veemon. He helped his mum to a chair before rushing over to them. "What happened?!" He demanded.

"Duskmon just came out of nowhere and rushed us." Davis explained. "Takuya sprit evolved just in time but… I think his attack did more then just physical damage."

"Lunar Plasma?" Veemon chirped up. Koji nodded, well aware of what that attack can do. It inflated Koji's anger towards Cherubimon into pain. It occurred to him that Takuya wasn't one to hold grudges or anger, but the guilt with being unable to protect his own brother might be enough. He looked up to see the Kanbara Patriarch standing over the boy, still in stunned disbelief. Koji's tongue twisted in his mouth as he considered on how he was going to explain this to Takuya's father. And his biological mother.

Takuya began to stir from unconsciousness. Sora eased him up as he tried to get up.

"Are you okay?" She asked concerned.

"Get away from my son!" Came the angered voice of Hiroaki Kanbara as he pulled Sora away and thrown her uncermously into a corner with Biyomon.

"Hey!" Davis yelled. "There's no need for that!" He found himself angry that Sora was abused in such a fashion. Sora was only trying to help Takuya, and he was pushing her way.

"What have you done to him!?" Hiroaki yelled. "You turned him into a monster!"

From the doorway, Clair observed the whole thing. Her anger was boiling over but it was drowned out by the scientist in her, questioning Hiroaki Kanbara's actions. She concluded that he wasn't accepting Takuya's half digimon status, but refused to reject him for being one. Her anger was then suppressed by the idea that he was just ignorant and doing what any father would do.

"Mr. Kanbara. Please clam down." Kari pleaded, only to get back handed by the man. Kari tumbled to the ground. Takuya, despite feeling weakened and drained, got to his feet and tackled the man, restraining him against the wall. He resisted Takuya's augmented strength that came from his digimon side until a blade of cold stainless steel was placed against his neck. Clair Weli'sol had placed one of her throwing knives against his neck.

Takuya stepped away from his father, adrenaline fading and the weakness setting in. Davis and Koji, after making sure Kari was okay and leaving her in Sora's care, had caught Takuya before he fell to the floor again.

"What have they done to you Takuya?" Hiroaki questioned, struggling against the younger girl's rigid position, and the sliver knife that was pressed to his neck. Only Takuya heard. His eyes turned to the still quite Tomoko Kimora who was processing what she saw. Hiroaki wondered if she had any idea what kind of a monster her son was turned into.

"You should leave now." Clair told him.

"Not without…" Hiroaki started.

"You're not position to argue." Clair hissed as Marcus and Henry entered the apartment.

"We've managed to clam everyone down." Henry told her. "Everyone just thought it was a traffic incident with the black out."

"Marcus. Would you show Mr. Kanbara out please." She asked. "Handcuff him to a train if you have to. And word of advice sir, the word monster should not be used around Shinya." She lifted the knife and returned it to it's holster strapped to her ankle and Marcus pulled the man out of the apartment as she turned to the other occupants. There was a loud painful yell from outside, everyone feared for the worse.

* * *

"Thunder Fist!"

"Deadly Glaze!"

Before Beetlemon could land a punch, Duskmon's attack hit him first. The fractal code cocooned the warrior and left him as the thirteen year old boy before Tai's feet. Joe had jumped out of the car to help treat the boy for any possible injuries. Then the twin red blades came for them.

"Hand of Fate!"

"Shadow Meteor!"

The two attacked combined into a double helix of holy light and pure darkness, both hitting the warrior, and throwing him back into a parked car, glass shattering and the metal fender denting.

And still, he laughed.

TK ran up from behind Tai and Blake. "Why his he laughing?!" He called out.

"What's so funny?" Tai demanded as he helped JP up.

"You really think that a warrior of darkness can side with the light?" Deskman asked. "You think Koichi won't be consumed by the powers of darkness? That's all darkness does. It consumes everything until there's nothing left but darkness. Koichi didn't come back from corruption easy. Do you really think he's so pure that he can't be corrupted again? He will find himself lost in darkness, and I will become his sprit again." Deskman glared at Koichi as if to fight back and say different.

"I can prove you wrong right now." Blake muttered, almost to quite for everyone to hear. "It's such a lovely night. Dark and peaceful. Why not spend it stargazing? If darkness consumed all, then why can you see stars twinkle. Their light taken years to get here. Decades. Centuries. Light is aggressive. Darkness is passive. You're not darkness. You're just a nightmare that lingers after the dreamer has long stop dreaming. Fear is the only reason you're still here."

TK looked up at the night sky. He was right. Dotting the darkness were thousands and thousands of stars, each one twinkling in an void of darkness, and among them was a full moon. In a city like Tokyo, it was difficult to find a night sky like this. He hadn't noticed that the city's lights had gone out, and yet the moon and stars gave them enough light to see by. There was a strange comfort in this night, a warm, spring night.

Was darkness fighting to extinguish all light from the sky? Or was darkness trying to fill a void that's left by an absence of light? Or was there such a thing as absence of light? He never considered light to be aggressive. But then again, why were stars only visible in darkness? It was beginning to put TK's beliefs into prospective. He had already believed the powers of darkness might be a force for good in Koichi's hands. He was unlike any of the evil digimon he had faced.

"And the answer is no." Blake went on. "No I don't think he's above corruption. None of us are. I know the burden Koichi will face in this fight. I know what living in darkness, fighting in shadows can do to someone. The important thing is to strive for the light. Never lose sight of it. My convictions have lead me out of the darkness far too many times then I can count. And my friends have followed me in to pull me back from those dark places. And there is no doubt in my mind that Koichi's convictions are strong enough to keep him from your hands, and his friends and family will pull him from the black when he is lost. Isn't that right TK?"

The blonde haired boy hesitated for a moment. Then, he straightened up and nodded. "Yes." He whispered. Blake sensed the conviction, even if the voice was weak. He knew that even if he still questioned darkness' role in the world, he wasn't going to let it take Koichi from him. "No matter what."

"We shall see about that." Duskmon growled before rushing at Angeamon. He blocked both swords with his rod. Then again and again. Loweemon rushed him with his spear, only to be blocked by another sword. The single digimon held up well against both opponents. Then a slash across Loweemon's armour caused him to revert. Koichi fell to the ground in his human form as Loweemon's weapon rolled across the road. Angeamon didn't last too long either, as a slash caused him to revert to Patamon. Blake's Katana appeared in his hand and split into two blades as he began to take up the fight. The digimon watched in awe as a human matched blows with a champion level digimon, amazed that he could even keep his swords in his hands. A rush of air seemed to burst from the ground as Blake leapt over the digimon and landed behind him. Duskmon foresaw the attack just in time to meet his blades with his own. A kick to the diminution jumper's chest forced him to the ground, and the swords to slip from his hands. Agumon didn't wait around and rushed the warrior of darkness but was done away with quickly.

"Agumon!" Tai yelled and froze when he saw Duskmon place a blade to Blake's neck.

"Sinka ta'ir. Astara kaira wia nemom teua." Blake hissed. He was smiling. Tai's head quickly question what Blake was doing. Wasn't he the least bit concerned with losing his head.

"What does that mean?" Duskmon demanded.

"It's contemporary Sun Elven for 'This Path has Ended, your Fate Sealed' Often said to criminals after they've been sentenced to death. To bad you hesitated, we could have gone out together. Not that I don't mind. Dying isn't exactly painless, not to mention the awkward explanations. But also, I get to enjoy this. Besides, your not my nightmare."

Duskmon then screamed in pure agony as a length of metal pierced his chest. TK, with Patamon on his head had picked up the spear, after it failed to disappear when Koichi de-sprit evolved and stabbed Duskmon from behind. Blake got up quickly and face Duskmon.

"You're his." He finished as he exploded into a cloud of data, and the spear faded out of existence, leaving a small black metal egg behind. "Cutting it rather close weren't you kid?"

TK shrugged then picked up the egg. "Duskmon's essence? Does this mean he's going to hatch from…" He found something on the egg. The crest of hope.

"That's another digi-metal." Izzy concluded. "Prodigious."

"If it represents hope then why is it black?" TK asked.

"It isn't." Koichi pointed out, walking up with a hand over his chest. "Look on the base." TK turned it over. It was loosely the Kanji for Darkness, in bronze.

"I see. That's what he meant." Blake muttered. "Darkness corrupted hope, but truth of darkness now purifies hope."

"What do you mean?" JP asked as he, Joe and Tai, with a tired Agumon, came up to them.

"Think about it." Blake told them, leading them towards the apartment building. As they started towards the doors, the street lights came back on. "Ah. That's fortunate. I was beginning to think Parker was having trouble with the city's power grid again."

"You planed that black out?" Tai asked, putting two and two together.

"Why not? A few minutes of darkness never hurt anyone."

Koichi pushed the button on the elevator to his floor, and they now followed him to the apartment. Koji and Sora were sitting at the table with Tomoko, trying his best to comfort her and explain what was going on. Based on a glance, they were probably doing well with a lot of colour returning to the woman's face. Kari was on the floor wrapping Takuya in an embrace and a bruise forming on her cheek. Tai was about to snap at Takuya but only noticing the boy's depressed state made him hold back. Davis, Henry and Clair were talking animatedly, and were the first to notice the new arrivals.

"So Takuya's dad did this to you?" Tai demanded as he placed a bag of ice on his sister's purple check. "I was concerned that you wouldn't make a good first impression on his parents, not the other way around." He tried to joke, but Kari's smile made him feel a little better, but there was still anger from how he treated her like that.

"You should be fine after a good night's rest." Joe pointed out after examining Takuya. "Just take it easy for a while." Takuya nodded, half listening to Joe, half listening to Blake who was now on the phone with his mum, explaining to her how his father reacted to finding out Takuya was…

"Ministry of Defence?" Blake repeated. "Which branch?" The conversation had taken a turn towards his father's work history, which Takuya could have told him was government related. "Government Research. Project HYPNOS. Based out of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Thanks." He hung up Takuya's phone and handed it back to the boy. "You okay?"

Takuya nodded. Blake took it to be an okay sign. Henry had set up a camera and Izzy was typing away, ready to take down any observations. Koji and Koichi had taken Tomoko into the Living Room away from the excitement, and explaining how they came to meet. A rather complicated explanation for all involved. Clair held the digi-metal of courage in her hand, waiting.

It was time.

"Start from the beginning again." Marcus asked.

"Okay. In our first adventure in the digital world, we had these crests that represented a virtue. Hope. Friendship. Light. Love. Reliability. Knowledge. Courage. We used them to help our digimon digi-volve past champion and to their ultimate level." TK explained. "But we had to give them up, and our digimon can't digivolve to their ultimate forms."

"If Blake's theory holds, then the sprit of flame can rebuild the crest of courage from the digi-metal." Izzy went on. "But it's up to Takuya."

"But why Takuya?" Marcus asked.

"It seemed obvious." JP pointed out. "I mean, the digi-metal courage looks like it's on fire. Agumon's champion form is descended from Agunimon's ancient form. I mean, come on. It's really obvious."

They watched as Joe and Tai helped Takuya to his feet, and walk over to Clair who reluctantly took the metal. They waited, Takuya unsure of what to do, he wondered if Agunimon was going to tell him what to do. Then Tai stepped up.

"Let's have a look at… ahhh!"

Flames burst from the metal itself. Tai jumped back from the memory of being burnt by the metal, but his hand remained around the metal that was in Takuya's palms. The metal glowed as the flames began to take the shape of a tall, dragon. One that Takuya and JP remember all to well.

BurningGreymon.

The creature leapt towards Takuya and it was like he was inhaling the flames. He stumbled backwards, hitting the wall, this hands clutching his head. Joe stepped forward.

"You okay Taku…"

"Ow! Not so loud! I can hear you okay! I'm not deaf!" Takuya yelled, eyes squeezed closed. Everyone looked on with worried looks. Joe wasn't talking that loudly, but Takuya made it sound like he was yelling in his ear.

"Takuya?" Henry whispered.

"That's better. Can someone turn down the lights please. Why are they so bright? And… can anyone else smell that?" Takuya asked.

"Smell what?" Blake asked, following Henry's idea of whispering. He sniffed the air thoughtfully, trying to pick up what Takuya was talking about. Joe couldn't mistake the grimace of pain that flashed over the younger boy's face as he did. Then pain turned to disgust before becoming realisation. He turned to Joe. "Sensory overload. Sight, hearing and smell have just been dialled up to eleven and Takuya has no control over it. He can smell Tomoko's panic. Or…"

He had the decency not to finish his thought out loud, but neither Tai, nor Kari missed him glancing in their direction. He was aware, better then anyone else that the fear wasn't directed at them, but rather for them. Tomoko was about to see a world of wonder and be powerless to stop the danger that her sons would face on a daily basis.

Hirokai Kanbara on the other hand will be lashing at angrily at everything and anything he can direct blame at. Denial was going to be a problem for him. It was likely that the man would drown reality out with liquor. A short term solution that will cause long term problems. He bit down on his lip, aware that of all the enemies these chosen children would have to face, the possibility that their own parents would be one of them is a daunting, of not, devastating prospect.

"I think it's from having his beast sprit back." JP pointed out forgetting to whisper, earning a grunt from Takuya. "Sorry Takky."

"We better get you home. And some ear muffs." Blake told him.

"Hey." Tai opened his head, showing them a necklace. It was in the shape of an orange sun, with nothing between the points, but some invisible force held the points in place. It sat in the palm of Tai's hand, the size of an american quarter. On both sides of the crest, an amber tear shaped crystal hung from the thin, crystal thread.

"Looks like it worked." Marcus cheered, forgetting Takuya's predicament.

"Ow." Takuya moaned.

"Okay. I think we've had enough excitement for one night." Tomoko annouched, the struggle of her mind clearly showing in her voice. "I think it's time that you get home. We could all use a good night's rest."

"Izzy!" JP and Clair opened the bedroom door to find that the boy in question was passed out in front of a desktop computer. JP recognised the image the screen was frozen on, having witnessed it last night. The moment that Takuya's beast spirt returned to the warrior of flame. He moved closer to the red head, finding a notebook under his hand.

'Tai-Courage/MetalGreymon. Takuya-Flame/BurningGreymon. Both from the Dragon's Roar family. Both leaders of their respective groups. Does this mean that beast warrior sprits are hidden in the digi-metals?'

The notebook had a range of symbols, some JP recognised. One was the crest of knowledge, and the other was the crest of love. A sun shaped symbol had an arrow pointing to it from the Kanji representing flame with a note saying 'Tai mentioned that his hands were burnt by the metal.'

There were two arrows, both pointed to two different crests from the same kanji, light. 'Same name.' written under one of them and 'Nature Spirt family digimon, similar personalities and histories' under the other.

Clair placed a hand on Izzy's shoulder, gently rocking him awake while JP noticed Bokomon had fallen asleep with a rather large book on greek mythology as a rather uncomfortable pillow.

"Izzy!" Matt's voice called over the boy's digivice. He stirred from his sleep. "This is important Izzy!"

At the mention of his name, Izzy shot up. "Yeah Matt." He grabbed the device, surprised to find both Clair and JP in his room.

"Dad just rushed in saying he was harassed by a man on the street. Tai just called saying that he and his sister got a rude awaking by Mr. Kanbara this morning, pounding on the door, demanding to see them before being chased off by a stray cat." Izzy nodded before opening an email.

"Did Sora mention that her dad got an email from a government agency this morning?" He asked. Over his shoulder, Clair read the email, discovering that part of it was from another email which was forwarded. The forwarded body read like a poison pen letter, accusing the man's daughter of turing his son into a monster.

"No. She didn't." Matt growled before another voice rang though the room calling for another occupant. This time, it was Zoe's, and JP answered it without hesitation.

"Hey Z." JP chipped happily.

"Oh. Right. I forgot you guys were going to DATS today." Matt sighed, now aware that Izzy wasn't alone. "You guys going to be right?"

"Yeah. Yoshi will drive us there with her cruiser." Clair answered, as JP's conversation devolved into a panic. "And we'll be back by party time. Did Zoe mention anything?"

"Sora give me the heads up. TK and I are heading to Shi…" Matt was interrupted by a yell on his end. "Sorry Izzy. I've gotta go.

"What!? You mean… Oh man! What did your parents do?" JP asked.

"They demanded that he leave then made me promise I would go to Takuya's house alone ever again." She heard Zoe say. "They must have thought his father was crazy. And the fact that he was drunk didn't help. But what happens if they start asking questions? Yukata we could handle, but Takuya's dad? And I still haven't heard anything from the twins."

"We stay with our story." JP told her. "I've gotta go Z. Where are you now?"

"Takuya's place. I slept over at Miss Kanbara's request. I think something about our sprits help suppress Grumblemon's influence over Shinya. Takuya's more then anyone else."

"I guess that's a good thing." JP huffed. "Becareful Z."

"Ciao" Zoe said shaky as her symbol vanished.

"Zoe says that Takuya's dad paid her parents a visit this morning." JP told the others.

"But not before venting his anger against…" Izzy started as he hung up with Matt. "How did he know about Sora's father. He's a university professor in Kyoto?"

"Something we can ask at DATS." Clair pointed out.

* * *

Despite having enhanced hearing, Takuya found it rather easy to sleep though the night. Shinya had taken up residence in his room for the night, not wanting to sleep alone. He hadn't had any nightmares that night. As Takuya woke up that morning, he found that the over sensitive ears and eyes didn't hurt as much. The colours where now much more vivid, and he could hear and smell breakfast being made down stairs, along with every oder in his room, including his soccer kit that was long over due for a wash. Though his hearing couldn't pick up Shinya's breathing.

The warmth was now amplified too. It felt like his blood was super heated, and every time he exhaled hard, steam would rise from his throat. And now that he was awake, he felt like he had energy to burn. But for some reason, he didn't feel entirely optimistic with having his beast sprit back. Something inside of him felt angered. He imagined that it was BurningGreymon not liking the idea of being back. He hoped he wouldn't go on a rampage, especially now in the middle of Jiyugoka. Last time BurningGreymon went on a rampage, he nearly burn down half the Forest Kingdom. He could only dread to think at what he could do to Tokyo.

There was a bang out side, and a loud yelp. "Neemon!" That sounded like Takato.

"Takatomon. My tail hurts." Takuya managed to climb out of bed, noticing that the bedroll Shinya should have been sleeping in was empty, and that he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, he grabbed his hat and googles and made his way down stairs. Shinya was trying hard not to let his sides split. Neemon had tripped over Guilmon's tail and had ended up with a plate of green scrambled eggs on his head.

"Great. Now I'm going to have to use chicken eggs instead." Blake moaned. "They're not as well flavoured, and they're boring. Who uses plain old chicken eggs with triceratops bacon?"

"Wait? This is dinosaur meat?" Zoe questioned as she put her phone away, Takuya could tell that there was something rattling her. "Where do you even get dinosaur meat?"

"Take a wild guess." Takato deadpanned. "Why were those eggs green anyway? Don't tell me they were extraterrestrial."

"Fine. I won't then." Blake shot back.

"Were they even safe to eat?" Zoe questioned. "It looked weird."

"And how is that any different from Casu Marzu Cheese?" Blake asked as Takuya appeared at the bottom of the stars. "Ah. The sleeping dragon has awoken. And just in time to. I think the chocolate croissants are ready."

"Morning Takuya." Zoe chirped with a forced, but genuine smile. "We cocked breakfast."

"Look Takuya. Dinosaur Bacon." Shinya cheered as he showed him a plate of oversized bacon.

"You sure you can eat all that little buddy?" Takuya asked.

"If he can. Lets hope he saves room for Dessert." Blake said as he placed a try of pastries on the dinning room table. Takuya went for one immedality, only for Blake to slap away his hand. "Hey! They're still hot."

"Okay." Takaya moaned, leaning back in his chair. His ear twitched as he picked up the sound of something outside. Guilmon did the same, looking up from his meal of day old bread, and growling.

"What's going on?" Zoe asked.

"Someone's outside." Blake answered.

"It's Yutaka." Takuya pointed out frowning, before his eyes widened. He made a dash for the door with Guilmon following.

"Something tells me a girl is involved." Blake joked as they followed.

"Ow." Tai moaned, not sure what happened. One moment, he was protecting his sister from a brown haired teenager. Then, his fist came out of nowhere. And to top it off, his digivice fell from his belt, and Agumon was released. The digital reptile did not take kindly to the younger boy harassing his partner, or Kari. Before he could do anything however, he ran off.

* * *

"Are you okay Tai?" Agumon asked.

"Nothing an ice pack and a few days can't fix." Tai answered, his brush already appearing.

"If I ever see that boy again, I'll scratch him into fish sticks." Gatomon said, giving the direction the boy ran down a dirty look like any association with the boy made it the enemy.

"Kari! Tai!" They heard Takuya call out. The boy was running down the sidewalk, franticly, Guilmon, Blake, Zoe and Takato following. "What happened? Where's Yutaka?"

"How did you know it was Yutaka?" Kari asked.

"He heard you." Blake answered as he approached the Kamyia siblings. "And yeah, two blocks away. You guys weren't exactly quite."

"What happened?" Zoe asked, directing the question to Kari.

"Gatomon was out of her digivice, walking beside us out of sight." Kari explained.

"I thought I saw a digimon, but when I jumped into the garden to flush it out, I found that guy." Gatomon continued. "In the open, he began to yell at Kari, demanding who she was. Personally, he's lucky he ran off before I could teach him a lesson for ruffling my fur. But the wired thing is, he took one look at Agumon and ran off. Screaming."

"Something about aliens." Agumon added, much to the amusement to the others. "What's so funny?"

"Lots of things. Anyway. Don't we need to get to school? On a Saturday?"

"At least no one else will be there." Takato deadpanned.

* * *

"So why did Sampson need those reports anyway?" Clair asked, no longer finding anything of interest in her scientific journal.

"Because of Thomas." Yoshi answered. "He's a resent recruit to DATS Japan, but for the last six months, he was in Europe, assisting with the Austrian Devision of DATS."

"I see." Clair turned back to see the boys hadn't been paying attention. Marcus had fallen asleep, but the snoring gave that away. Izzy had his laptop out, she assumed he was working on a project of some description, either for school, himself, or more likely Digimon related. JP was deep in thought, his phone completely ignored, but still in his hand.

"A far along is she?" Clair asked JP, watching him yawn.

"Wha…" JP asked.

"Someone in your family is expecting. Correct?" She pressed on again.

"My Aunt. six months" JP said confused. "How did you… Did Zoe say something? Takuya?"

"Ice cream and pickles." She answered smugly. "And caramel topping if I'm not mistaking the stain on your jumpsuit sleeve."

* * *

"Tai!" Davis called out as his hero walked up to the school gates.

"Takuya!" Tommy followed suit as the group approached them. Sora smiled at the sight of Tai, and almost chuckled at the sight of a soccer ball under his arm, and gasped at the purple bruise forming on his face.

"Gee, something smells good." Armadillomon called out, smelling something in the air.

"Chocolate croissants!" Shinya cheered, showing the blue digimon the box filled with pastries.

"What happened?" Sora asked as Takato slipped away unnoticed.

"Tommy's older brother left a bad first impression." Tai answered, looking past the gates of the elementary school. Yolei was talking to Kristy, while off to one side, Koji was away from everyone else. Cody, Henry and Koichi were talking animatedly among themselves while most of the rookie digimon were playing among themselves.

They found it amusing to play some sort of game on a squiggly line that was drawn on the soccer field.

"Another one?!" Takato said shocked. "What does it even mean?"

"Obviously, that's the out of bounds line." Blake pointed to one of the squiggly lines. "And if you cross that line, you have to hop like a frog for the… rest of the game?"

"Your just making that up." Zoe accused.

"But I do it so well." Blake defended.

"Hey!" Zoe nearly slapped who ever was behind her over the head when she felt something tug on her trousers, only to find it was Gatomon. Anger gave was to sympathy as the digimon looked like she was minding his own business.

Takato's scream shattered the stillness in the air.

"What happened to the animals?" Cody managed to ask. Everyone was in a state of shock, looking at the scene of blood and fur. Shinya turned away from the cages, and Guilmon made every attempt to comfort his partner. The older kids tried to keep the younger children from the spectacle, but they wouldn't take no for an answer.

"It's like they tore each other apart." Henry noted. "But these animals aren't violent. If they were, the school wouldn't have them here."

Koichi made a valiant effort to enter the cages and retrieve one of the rabbits. When his hand touched the bloodied white fur, it woke up with a screech. Blake and Koji pulled him out before something could happen. Tai, Sora, Takuya, Koji, Zoe, Henry and Blake watched on as the surviving rabbit struggled, as if it was in the jaws of something. Everyone else did their best not to look.

"It's like it's running from something." Biyomon pointed out.

"From what exactly?" Agumon asked as the bunny became still, it's rapid breathing stopped.

Guilmon began sniffing the air.

"What is it?" Shinya asked the red dinosaur.

"A Digimon." Guilmon told the boy, looking over towards a large roller.

"Do you think an evil digimon might have done something to the rabbits?" Yolei asked. "Or the emperor sent some controlled digimon?"

"I wouldn't put it past him." Tai answered as Guilmon walked closer with Agumon and Veemon close behind. The three digimon sneaked around the thing, ready to attack. They were about to jump it, but they stopped themselves.

"It's a little guy." Veemon whispered. "And he's asleep."

* * *

"Look at this place." Marcus said what was on all of the boy's minds, as all three of them marvelled at the command centre, Agumon and Tentomon by their sides, equality amazed. It remanded Clair of the Bullpen back at the Commonwealth Building, displays showing feeds of data from multiple locations, bulky terminals instead of digital desktops and streamlined LED displays, small armour wearing digimon wondered around as opposed to taller androids that had a reputation of being dull conversation makers. And a giant glass tube on the far end of the wall. Clair approached it curiously.

"Fujiata, Reporting back." Yoshi said to her superior, a man in a blue suit with red shoulder pads. If she recalled, his name was Sampson, commander of the Yokohama Devision of DATS. Around his shoulders was a white lizard with gold markings. The man nodded and regarded his visitors with curiosity. Clair had dismissed her holographic veil in order to get a read of the man, but he seemed to regard the alien features with disinterest.

"So, your Marcus Damon." He said to brown haired boy. "I'm Commander Sampson."

"Interesting that this is the boy that fought Agumon because nothing about him indicates that he's able to fight at that level." The lizard said. Clair chuckled.

"Looks can be deceptive." Clair muttered under her breath, loud enough for the lizard to her.

"What's with the talking scarf?" Marcus demanded, not liking what he said at all. The scarf seemed to take offence to the question. Sampson however rubbed the creature's head.

"This is Kudamon. He's my digimon partner." Sampson stated then turning his attention to the boys. "Koushiro Izumi and Junpei Shibayma. Your reputations proceed you both your efforts saving both worlds." His attention was turned to Clair.

"Careful sweetheart." One of the girls told her, a black haired woman with dark makeup.

"You don't want to accidentally end up in the digital world." The blond haired counterpart informed her. "Not that we'd let that happen."

"You don't even know what it is either."

"It's a quantum tunnel energy extrapolator." Clair told the women.

"Okay. Maybe you do."

"You basically use quantum teleportation, create a controlled digital field convert the occupants into data and open a bridge to the digital world. And they use the digital gate on the other end to reverse the process."

"And you must be Clair Wells." Sampson stated.

She nodded, accepting the shortened name. "I would very much love to meet the man who designed this. I mean, its obsolete already, but it's still cutting edge. The calculations alone…"

"Mission Complete." Came another voice, interrupting her ramble. "Digimon secured."

Clair and Marcus regarded another newcomer, a blonde haired boy no older then she was, carrying an egg with a flame like theme on it's shell. The young man was followed by a blue dog like creature with boxing gloves. Sampson addressed them as he placed next to one of the terminals.

"Thomas. Perfect Timing."


	13. Nature of Secrets Discovered

**Chapter Twelve: Nature of Secrets Discovered**

Hiroaki Kanbara did not find the sobering effect of the coffee comforting. Rather that the idea of facing reality terrified him. His superiors were not kind when it came to the 'Wild Ones' they managed to capture, and the idea of what they might do upon their discovery of one under his roof, his own son subjected to those tortures that Kurata seemed to take pleasure in subjecting those creatures to.

His thoughts came to a halt when someone in a thick black robe sat down across from him.

"Can I help you?" Hiroaki asked.

"You are Hiroaki Kanbara." The cloaked figure accused. The voice belonged to a woman, and a foreigner.

"How do you know my name?" Hiroaki demanded. In response, she placed an SD card on the table.

"Give this to Blake Steorra. The key is his identity." She got up.

"Who are you!?" Hiroaki demanded as she began to walk away. The figure looked

"I am the Black Star. The Shadow of Terra." She answered as she walked away, exiting though the back. He was stopped by a waitress, preventing him form following her further.

* * *

Yutaka couldn't hear them from across school playground, trying to stay in the shadow of the building, he could see Tommy's beloved orange hat, sticking out like a bright orange pumpkin, sitting with kids, some in their late teens, accompanied by stuffed toys, eating, chatting and laughing. A ping of jealousy hit the boy, seeing his younger brother talking to them so freely and at ease, while at home, it was like he was hiding something from his family.

What was he hiding from his family? And why would he be happy to share it with complete strangers? And what's with the… his last question was cut short when another boy, a google wearing brunette, followed by a… big, red dinosaur.

* * *

"You sure?" Tai asked, concerned that the younger boy wasn't completely over the sight of seeing the school's rabbits torn apart. Takato nodded as Sora offered him one of the french, chocolate filled pastries, and one to his partner who took it without hesitation. The only one who wasn't eating now was Blake.

"Must be some video game." Davis commented while the dimension jumper's focus was intent on the smartphone.

"Typical boys. More interested in video games then in the real world." Kristy added, looking over the boy's shoulder. "Is that a rabbit's skeleton?"

"Yep." Blake answered with a pop at the end. He put the phone away. "I don't understand, they just tore themselves apart, for no apparent reason."

"What do you mean?" Cody asked.

"They did it to themselves." Koichi realised. "Why?"

"If we knew that, we'd be having a different conversation." Blake looked up towards the building. Takuya chuckled under his breath then whispered something into Tommy's ear.

"Hey!" They heard TK call out as he and Matt walked towards them, Patamon atop the boy's hat. "Sorry we're late. There was a DemiMeramon in the train station."

"Another one?" Kirsty said shocked.

"There was one in the Damon's backyard." Tommy pointed out.

"Agumon wasn't having much effect against it." Kirsty continued. "I had to run next door for Tommy. Marcus was a little upset that he couldn't defeat an in-training but an icicle could in one hit. Should have seen him fuming one moment, then congratulating Tommy the next."

"The odd thing was, there was no egg left behind." Tommy added. "The data just disintegrated. And after one hit."

"Odd since the fire element should be stronger against ice." Henry considered. "The element advantage shouldn't be enough to make an in-training trouble against a champion, but it won't mean it would go down with some sort of fight."

At that moment, Matt chose to let Gabumon out from his digivice. A loud scream pierced the air.

"Okay Takuya, you've had your fun." Zoe said standing up. "I think we better explain to Yukata that we're not being invaded by aliens."

"No. Better let Tommy do it." Blake protested.

"But…" Kirsty started, remembering the last time Yutaka was alone with Tommy.

"Go with him Kirsty." Takuya added. "We still have this little guy to deal with." He pointed towards the unknown white digimon, which Tai's copy of Izzy's digimon analyser failed to turn up any information.

"Send him back to the digital world?" Koji suggested.

"I don't know." Kari protested. "Something tells me he's supposed to be here."

"Like a partner digimon?" Matt asked.

"Maybe."

"Then someone is probably missing him." Takato muttered.

"None of us have heard of any new digivices appearing." TK pointed out.

"Or they don't know what to make of it." Tai announced. "It like the eighth child search. It's probably someone who saw a digimon before, and someone we know."

"That's a pretty large pool of potential digidestine." Koichi pointed out. "I mean with the Obadia Fog Incident, Lucemon appearing over Shibuya, and those text messages Ophanimon sent out, not to mention the battle with Diablomon on the internet."

"And those are the ones we know about." Matt continued. "Only the eight of us saw Greymon battle Parrotmon outside Highton View Terrace."

"Nine." Takuya muttered.

"What?" Sora asked. "You were there?"

"Not important right now. I might know someone." Takuya deflected.

"Who? Your team's striker?" Koji scoffed.

"Same here." Takato said, deep in thought.

"What about Kristy?" Sora asked.

"Not a bad choice, considering Marcus." Matt concluded. "Siblings are bound to follow into the digital world's destiny."

"Any sibling?" Henry asked, wondering if someone in his family might have a digivice. Rancho or Jaarin, or even Suzie. Terriormon might enjoy the idea of no longer being Suzie's Princess Pretty Pants.

"We don't know." Kari said. "Joe's the only one of us that had an older brother. Save TK and Me. We have to assume it's possible. Davis? Yolei?"

"Oh no!" He yelled. "There's no way Jun could be digidestine."

"I don't think so." Yolei disagreed. "My sisters talk about everything. Mantarou leaves his things everywhere. I sure I would have noticed."

"There's also Yukata." Zoe pointed out.

"I hope not." Koji huffed. "Couldn't we erase his memory." He directed the question to Blake. "You have something for that right?" He shock his head.

"Erasing someone's memory without their consent is an offence under the Ethical Use of Memory Alteration Act. Forcing it on him is considered a Class Alpha Sentient Rights Violation unless I can prove that erasing the memory is better for the long term." He explained. "Let me put it to you this way, would you want me to do the same to Tomoko?" He asked. The question stuck Koji hard. Tomoko seemed to be content with ignoring the problem, and at the same time, it almost felt like she wanted to reach out, let them explain what was happening.

It also hit Takuya as well. He subconsciously pulled Shinya closer. The tension between children and mother was thick, especially with Takuya, but now he could tell Shinya the stories of his adventures in the digital world, and he couldn't help but notice a glint of pride in his mom's eye. A part of him was concerned that his father wouldn't be so accepting while the rest of him was optimistic that he would come around.

Blake's digi-piolt flashed with a message. "You guys can handle that right. I need to see a man about a greek deity." He told them.

"Your not serious." TK moaned.

"To a point." He answered before leaving, exiting by with a yell of "Bon Chance!"

"Lets split up." Tai spoke up. "We'll meet back in half an hour and check out these candidates."

"One question." Zoe said pointing to the white digimon now dancing around the soccer field.

* * *

"The Thomas boy I've heard so much about?" Clair whispered in Yoshi's ear as the boy walked up to Sampsons desk with a salute.

"Thomas H. Noirsitne. I arrived today from DATS Austria, ready to report for duty." The boy announced. Sampson nodded and took a seat. "I spent most of my flight reading your most resent reports. It seems there have been an increased number of digimon appearances lately in the Greater Tokyo area."

"He's so on top of things." Miki cheered.

"He so is." He dark haired counterpart added, both giggling like school girls. Clair made a comment about human fan girls under her breath.

"Do you think these number can eventually overwhelm the Data Squad?" Sampson asked the boy.

"No." Thomas answered. "But that depends on having the right team in place."

"And just what is the right team?" Clair asked, speaking up. Thomas turned to examine her, the three human boys, and the two digimon partners.

"I was unaware you had new recruits Commander." Thomas pointed out.

"Say What?!" Marcus yelled. "We're no… oof." He was cut off by Clair's elbow knocking the wind out of him.

"And what are you wearing?" He asked. Clair assumed it was because of her inhuman features, and decided to down play it.

"I dressed for Rio." She answered.

"This is Prodigious." Izzy said out loud. He had found a terminal to explore the system. "You have digital signatures from digimon I've never seen before. You've been operating for ten years." JP came up to Izzy.

"Isn't that when Spencer Damon disappeared." He said quietly.

"They aren't recruits Thomas." Sampson informed the young DATS agent. "Koushiro Izumi and Junpei Shibayama."

"One of the eight children involved in the Fog Incident." Thomas noted. "I've followed your work Koushiro. I'm impressed with how you handled yourself with the Diabomon battle. Your actions was instrumental in preventing a nuclear war."

"How did you…" Izzy asked.

"Sir." Thomas' partner interrupted. "It's an honour to meet the legendary warrior of thunder." He bowed respectfully.

"I don't think I've ever seen Thomas so humble." Yoshi whispered to Marcus and Clair.

"Humble?" Marcus questioned.

"Apparently he graduated from the Stockholm Royal University of Science last year." Clair informed him. "Full doctorate and medical license. And if I recall my Genealogy, The Noristine Name is actually descended from Austrian Royalty."

"As for his partner Gaomon, he's our best digimon partner, a disciplined and trained fighter." Lalamon informed them. "They're easily our best team."

"And you are?" Thomas directed the question to Marcus and Clair.

"Commander, I need to see your resent scientific data on the barrier between worlds." Clair said brushing off Thomas. "Have fun you too." She left the room and the door closed behind her. She could almost hear Marcus' yells immediately. She didn't know what it was about Thomas that made her skin crawl, but she wasn't going to judge him by first impressions, yet. But the boy was a genies, however, she wasn't going to say that out loud while he was in the room.

She was followed out by Megami and a yell of "Take that back!"

"I don't know how you put up with him." She said, pushing a stray strand of her long black her behind her ear.

"I could say the same thing." Clair responded. "Lead the way."

* * *

"This moron?!" Koji huffed. "Your kidding." Takato felt relieved, no longer being on the sharp end of Koji's comments after he left the white in training digimon with Guilmon in one of the classrooms and leaving them to their own devices.

Takuya lead the group to his school in Jiyugaoka. On the field, there was a game going on. One of the boys, the one Takuya pointed out had the ball at his feet about to score, only for one members to steal the ball.

"That's him?" Tai asked.

"Juurota Katsuki." Takuya pointed out. "He might be a little competitive…"

"A total hot head." Koji corrected as the other team score.

"Why didn't you tackle him!?" They heard Juurota yell at one of the kids on his team before the scene turned into the co-caption beating up the younger boy, causing Tai, Matt and Takuya to run in and try to stop him.

"See what I mean?" Koji said almost upbeat.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone so violent." Kari mentioned. "Even the Dark Masters weren't this angry."

Takato suddenly had the vision of the poor white digimon losing against a Goblinmon, only for Juurota to start pummelling the digimon himself.

"If that kid was a digidestine, the other digimon would be the least of our worries." Davis pointed out as they watched Juurota struggle against the grip of the older boys, eventually slamming his foot on Matt's, causing the blonde to let go and allow him to punch Tai an the face.

"Who's next?" Henry asked.

"I might know someone." Yolei called out.

* * *

Tomoko Kimora dreaded her brake. The quite that came with it left her alone with her thoughts and she did everything to avoid that cup of coffee that waited for her in the brake room, and the small packed lunch that sat in the fridge.

"Kimora. Could you watch the burn victim in bed four?" Doctor Kido told the woman. "His parents are signing the release forms."

Tomoko nodded, recalling that the boy had been admitted after being rescued from a structural fire with only first degree burns on his arm. They only had him for an overnight observation. She found him drawing, a silver, red and orange figure with a mane of blond hair and determined brown eyes, emerging from flames. A figure she recognised, remembering it was the same figure that was passed out on her floor before he changed into… Takuya.

"That's a rather unusual drawing." She said to the boy. He looked up and smiled at her. "Who's that?" She braved asking.

"Agunimon." The boy said. "He saved me from the fire. He's a digimon warrior."

"A digimon warrior huh." She said kindly, but in her head, questions began to stir.

* * *

"That is such a cute dress." One girl told the other as Yolei pointed the duo out.

"The one with the darker hair is Terry." Yolei told the group. "The other is Michelle."

"They were in Mimi's class when she went to the digital world." Sora pointed out. "Small world."

"She can't be as bad as Juurota. No offence Takuya." Tai pointed out, a soda bottle placed on his black eye which was now aching more from the previous choice.

"I don't blame you." Takuya chuckled nervously as they walked though the crowded mall.

"They do look nice." Zoe said considering them, remembering her camping trip prior to her trip to the digital world. "How are we going to explain to either one of them what a digimon is?"

"Good point. A lot of kid were taken by Myotismon that night." Davis pointed out. "They might have be scared from that incident."

"Really?" Takato questioned as an image of both girls meeting the white digimon, thinking he was a stuffed animal, cuddling him then he suddenly asked for air. Both girls looked at the 'toy' then ran off screaming that the ghost was going to suck the air from their lungs.

"Look at this!" Koji called from a nearby stall. "It the symbol on that digimon's forehead." Matt and Tai looked over the boy's shoulder, Takato joined them with everyone behind him.

"Oh yeah." Takato remembered, pulling out a similar card. "The Digivolution Card." They examined it closer, it was the same red triangle, with a black triangle on the background. Then suddenly Takato got an idea. "What about a card game player?"

"Huh?" Takuya questioned, obviously lost at what Takato suggested before… "Oh. Right."

"It's a sound idea." Koichi thought. "We'd have to try someone who hasn't had any negative interaction with digimon. Anyone you know of?"

Takato smiled with an idea.

* * *

"You certain?" Blake asked as he reviewed the paper file inside the Secure Compamsntlised Information Facility. The man behind him was the FBI Legit of the US embassy in Tokyo. "This is everything you have on HYPNOS? It's not even redacted and there's not much to go on."

Agent Baxter shock his head. "It's publicly labeled as an Anti-Terror Operation, scanning communications in and out of Japan. They've worked closely with our Five Eyes Research Operation with the digital world."

Blake looked up from the file. "What. What? Did you just say the digital world?"

"I thought you knew. You are the same Blake Steorra that prevented both sides of the cold war from going nuclear?"

"I knew about it. I was just unaware you knew about it."

"Well, you don't need to worry about the digital world since you're not from here." Baxter sighed. "The world was almost in a mass panic when that other world appeared in the sky, thinking aliens were invading."

"What threat?" He demanded before reconsidering. "You know what Agent Baxter. Nevermind. Thanks for the help." He returned the file to the cabinet and left the room.

* * *

"The one that played the upgrade card is Kazu. He's the one I was thinking of." Takato pointed out the three kids under the dinosaur in Shinjuku park, apparently winning, despite if he was playing fair or not. "He saw the battle of Diablomon with me, and he knows almost everything about the card game."

"Yeah, even so, I don't think he's the best choice." Henry said deep in thought.

"I don't think he's even playing the game right." Shinya pointed out. "He shouldn't be able to play that upgrade card with that digimon. It's got way too many upgrades already. It's unbalanced."

"Sounds like he gives his digimon all those upgrades to beat up the opposing digimon. But leaves it's weakness wide open." Tai concluded.

That moment, Tatako had the image of the white digimon in a boxing ring with Guilmon. with Kazu egging him on.

"Yep. Your right guys." Takato concluded.

"Hey! What about Suzie?" Terriormon cried out.

"Henry's little sister. I doubt it." TK rejected. "She sounds too young."

"She is only five." Came a voice from behind them. Standing on the monkey bars was Blake, holding a file. "No luck?"

"None." Tai sighed. "What's with the file?"

"Something my comrades in Moscow dug up." He answered, jumping off the monkey bars. "Takuya's dad is working for an International Counter Tourism Unit named HYPNOS. Appropriately named after the greek personification of sleep considering it's a deep cover operation. That file is everything the KBG had on the unit before it disbanded." He handed the file to Takuya. Upon opening it, he found documents in Cyrillic.

"I can't read Russian." Takuya informed him. Blake looked at the document presented before the boy only to let out a sigh.

"I thought it was Transliterated into Japanese." He said after taking the file back. "I'll just give you the cliff notes. HYPNOS was founded in 1990, after a Terror Attack in the Tokyo Bay area. It was twelve years ago, no one died, but the city was shut down for a week. Press said it was a car bomb packed with sharpmetal, but the metal was giving off delta radiation."

"Meaning?" Zoe demanded. Blake stopped.

"Remember when you first moved back to Japan, and you didn't quite fit in? The new girl singled out by the rest?" Blake asked, continued without a response. "Now amplify that feeling so much that everyone else can feel it. Delta Radiation is easily described as nature's highlighter, that something is not native to this universe, or time period, or dimension, or even the same creation. It's not harmful, and it dissipates over time. Or you've travelled so much, even home becomes alien to you."

"Wait. Are you saying that this metal wasn't from our universe?" Henry questioned.

"On a side note, the metal came from eons of universes coming into creation and decaying away and fall though the void of reality where they fused together into random bits of metal at speeds faster then light." He explained. "And at those same speeds, are thrown back into reality though aether events. And I can see the steam raising from Davis' ears. I don't think the rest of you are faring to well either."

"Just barely." Tai sighed. "Back to the point being made."

"The 'attack' was a digimon, let in by the brake down in causality." Blake continued. "Unless anyone can think of a reason why the National Self Defence Forces scrambled jets to fire upon that location. The file also mentions six code names of persons HYPNOS was taking a keen interest in; Tao, Dolphin, Babel, Shibumi, Curly and Daisy."

"Those names sound familiar." Henry muttered.

"Anything else in there?" Davis demanded as he grabbed the file.

"What even makes you think you can read it google head?" Koji demanded.

"I'm sure I can understand this." He held up a photo of a pixalised Agumon.

* * *

Clair let out a breath of frustration, left with more questions then answers. Everything was heavily redacted, scientific reports were vague, and nothing older then ten years. It was like they were trying to hide something. But what exactly?

The pulled out the modified flash drive with the information she gathered saved to the device, and shut down the terminal. As she left the room, she heard a bell. She's been in enough gyms, and watched enough boxing matches with Glenn, Koraian and Zane to know the sound of a boxing match starting. She followed the noise to find Marcus in a boxing ring with Thomas as his opponent. Walking up to the ring, she found Izzy, JP and Agumon cheering the brown haired boy on with Yoshi, Lalamon and Tentomon watching the match with indifference. Compared to the other side with Miki and Megumi cheering for Thomas, Gaomon with them, still as a post.

She noticed that Marcus was on the offensive, but his punches were easily dodged and evaded. There was power, but his technique was clumsy. Thomas on the other hand showed patience and forethought. He was only caught off guard when the light reflected off Clair's digi-Pilot and blinded him. This gave Marcus the opening that allowed him to land a right jab.

"Yeah Boss!"

"This is going to be one of those things right?" Clair asked Yoshi.

"I've seen Thomas beat Olympic Champions in this very ring." Yoshi whispered back. "I doubt Marcus stands a chance."

"Yoshi. I've seen unmodified humans take on Guadisaurs with nothing but their willpower and their wits. Thomas is going to have to do better then that, and besides, I'm already spoken for."

"You think they're fighting over you?" Yoshi asked shocked.

"Do I look like? The High School Queen Bee?" She scoffed. They watched as Thomas landed a blow on Marcus, leaving him stumbling backwards. "Miki mentioned that he graduated from the Stockholm University of Science. Did he major in a medical discipline?"

"Genetic Deceases, how did you…" Yoshi started.

"My good friend Wikipedia." Clair informed her as the two girls heard an alarm. Miki and Megumi stopped cheering and ran out of the gym.

"The system's detected a digital signature." Yoshi told her and the boys.

* * *

"It's a lot to take in, I know." Kirsty said, trying to comfort the young man.

Yutaka sat in stunned silence, trying to process the new information that's taken the whole afternoon to delver and, in the wake of the boy's denial, prove. Watching his brother emerge from that light as a white bear wearing a green head band and boots, and a small fireball with a face appeared behind Yutaka, though that part of his brother's demonstration was not planed, and left him scrambling for the nearest door. Inside, he found a red dinosaur with a little white big eared creature floating next to him as they ran outside.

That was cause for him to shut down completely, only getting one one question. And in return, he got an answer. They were Digimon.

He was four when he first encountered one. Two, actually when his family still lived in Hikarigoka, in a small apartment. Tommy was still in his infancy but his dad wanted to celebrate a promotion by taking his family out to dinner. But Yutaka wandered off and eventually was caught in the fall out of a digimon battle. When the footbridge collapsed, he was caught in the rubble and was trapped until workers cleared the rubble.

Suffice it to say, it was not present experience. When he saw the card game come out, he steered away from the fad, his earlier experiences with digimon creating the barrier. Someone will soon tell him it's his mind trying to heal from old scars and created this defence mechanism. It was the same thing with the text messages a year ago, and land appearing in the sky, and that summer when he thought he saw monsters.

Now, looking at Tommy, a feeling of fear welled up inside. He tried his hard to keep the fear from showing, repressing the anger directed towards what ever higher force allowed his brother to become a creature of destruction and a pang of guilt that came with idea that he was aware Tommy hid this from his family for a reason, that he himself couldn't accept the idea of even associating with those creatures, let alone becoming one. Yutaka couldn't stop himself from looking away from Tommy, he had no right to even call himself his brother right now. All the shouting matches he got into with Tommy and Zoe, and the brawls he managed to get into with Takuya and Koji, only one phase from Tommy himself stuck Yutaka the hardest.

"Takuya was more of a brother to me then you ever were!"

He could still remember the guilt that Tommy displayed after the statement, despite the undeniable fact that he was right.

"Yutaka?" The fear laced in Tommy's voice was unmistakeable. Yutaka bit his lip as he was almost certain that it was about his reaction to the news, and all this information. He tried to work up the courage to say something. Anything really. Something to play down the seriousness of the situation, or defuse the tension between them, or even start on the long list of questions on his mind. His concern is that if he opened his mouth, something spiteful might come out and really hurt him beyond repair.

He managed to open his mouth, inhaled and…

BOOM!

"What was that?!" Kirsty demanded.

* * *

"That doesn't look fine to me!" Takato yelled as the remains of a car smoldered in the school yard. "Does that look fine to you?!"

"Only in a warzone!" Yolei yelled as the group ran towards the school and over the closed gate, across the soccer field where the centre had a large fire burning.

"Guilmon!" Takato called out. "Guilmon!"

"Takato!" They turned to see said red dinosaur run towards the boy with a feral look in his eye. Digimon emerged form their partner's digivices and Takato dived out of the way as the dinosaur rammed it's target.

It was a fireball with a face, that disintegrated into data.

"There's another one!" Agumon yelled, his claw directed towards another flame body digimon.

"They're everywhere!" TK added.

"They're DemiMeramon. In-training digimon that can replicate themselves." Henry pointed out. "Fire attacks will have no effect against them. And if they merge together… the'll fuse into a single Meramon."

"Why haven't they already?" Patamon demanded. "There's obviously enough of them."

"The one Guilmon got didn't leave behind a digi-egg." Biyomon pointed out.

"Their data's been corrupted." Davis suggested. "Like Andromon last night."

"They must be unable to fuse together. Just able to keep replicating." Shinya concoulded.

"Look! More of them!" Cody called out as several dozen flew in from the street.

"Over there!" Tai pointed to more flying in from the north.

"It's like they're attracted to this place." Koji said.

"No. They Are attracted to this place." Blake corrected. "I can feel it. Something emitting an energy field."

"Yeah." Takuya breathed. "It feels like when we sprit evolve. I actually feel stronger just being here."

"You too?" Gatomon asked.

"I don't feel anything!" Davis complained.

"Must be a digimon thing." Koichi laughed, prodding the googlehead. All their digivices, save Henry's D-Arc began beeping urgently.

"Guys! This doesn't look good!" Matt called out.

"Spiral Twister!"

"Boom Bubble!"

"Cat's Paw!"

"Vee Headbutt!"

"Feather Strike!"

"Diamond Shell!"

"Bunny Blast!"

Each attack hit a flaming face and it disintegrated. Takato and Henry looked though their decks to hand off cards to Tai and Matt while the warriors produced their digivices. But Takuya launched himself forward, his fist landing a blow on a stray fireball, an outline of Agunimon's gauntlet appearing around his hand. Blake followed with a katana in his hand, the sharpened steel slpit the fireball in half before turning into stray data.

Flashes of light signalled sprit evolutions. Zoe, Koji and Koichi went into action along with Agumon and Gabumon as their partner swiped modify cards though their digivices.

"Electro Shocker!" Agumon used Tentomon's attack on several fireballs at once.

"Bellow Blaster!" Gabumon on the other hand had been given a microphone. At first he wasn't sure what to do with it, but something in the back of his head told him to shout into it. Every fireball in the shockwave dispersed and vanished.

"Hurricane Twister!"

"Lobo Kendo!"

"Shadow Lance!"

From the school's door, Yutaka watched as the fight unfolded. It wasn't until a lone fireball took notice of the isolated human that it broke away from the group and moved closer that no one took notice of him.

"Help…"

"Blizzard Blaster!"

A quartet of snowballs pelted the fireball. It was a strange sight to see them melt into water and practiclly douse the fireball, and disappearing into fragments of data. Behind Yutaka, he saw the white bear form of his brother, with Kirsty behind him.

In seconds, hundreds of DemiMeramon was reduced to zero. Warriors returned to their human identities and digimon returned to their partners.

"Well that wasn't how I'd like to spend my Saturday Night." Blake huffed, but somewhere in his head, he still wanted to know what caused the rabbits to tear themselves apart, in their sleep.

"Did anyone see where that white digimon went?" Yolei asked concerned.

"You mean Calumon?" Guilmon asked, pointing towards the gate.

"Dad!" Takuya called out, almost afraid. By the school gate, the boy's father stood almost tense. In his eyes, Blake could almost recognise the guilt as he eyed the children, especially Kari, and most of all, Takuya. Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Patamon and Gatomon knew that the talk about to come was going to be difficult, mainly with what their partners had witness, if not, heard of how their parents took the news.

"Uh, Shinya. Why don't we take you home. Takuya and your dad need to talk." Sora spoke up. Slowly, digimon were returned to their digivices, all except Gatomon. In reality they were all going to the same place, but none of them let on the surprise that was waiting for Shinya. As Kari walk passed Takuya, his hand grabbed hers.

"Stay? Please?" He whispered to the child of light. She imagined that her presence would have bolstered his courage somewhat. Equally, Blake was stopped by Takuya's father, recognising something in the foreign boy's grey eyes. Tai on the other hand was stopped by his sister's absence and concerned about leaving her alone with the man that assaulted her last night.

Blake however kept him from immediately calling for his sister.

"Nothing's going to happen." Blake whispered. "Takuya wouldn't let it. So just listen."

Taking the boy's advice, he waited and watched as the Kanbara Patriarch walked closer to his eldest son. Takuya was about to speak when his father beat him to the first words.

"I'm sorry Takuya." He said. "I… I meant… what they did to…"

"Dad." Takuya interrupted, obviously needed things to be explained to him. "I guess I better start from the beginning."

"How long?" Hiroaki demanded.

"I…" Takuya briefly debated how to answer the question. "I've been able to sprit evolve into Agunimon since last week." He answered. "My first time in the digital world was a year ago today."

His father took in the new information with a heavy heart and comparing it with what he already knew. The so called 'Dragon Electrical Anomaly' in Shibuya last year, and the wild one that attacked Shinya. But one event stood out more then any other. Takuya's sudden maturity.

* * *

Yutaka had gotten home quickly, now convinced that he was far too gone to talk to his younger brother. What ever confidence was built had quickly vanished in the wake of those fireballs and fear was deeply rooted in the boy again. He leaned against the front door in an unconscious act against his phobias, mentally scolding himself for leaving, and reminding himself that he needed to say something, and he needed to do so soon.

"Yutaka!" He heard his mom call for him, but somewhere in his head, memories flashed before his eyes. He couldn't face his parents. Not after today. He ran though the house, up stairs, leaving a confused woman in his wake. Had he have stopped for a moment, he would have noticed a letter on the coffee table that arrived today. Strangely, it was unstamped and the only thing written on the envelope was his name.

* * *

"I can't recognise the digital signature." Miki informed the other passengers of Yoshi's little car. JP and Marcus were fortunate that Clair and Izzy elected to remain behind, but Agumon refused to remain in the digivice. Back at DATS, and though their communicators, they could hear the girls typing away at their terminals. "This one is weird too."

"A high standard has been placed on weird lately." JP moaned.

"She meant the digital signature. There's something off about it, like a new attribute." Clair shot at the warrior of thunder. "Remain vigilant guys."

"There's something else there." Izzy called out. "And it's human."

"Thomas. Yoshino. Proceed with caution. This could be another partner digimon." Sampson instructed them.

"Clair. Izzy. What exactly is this new attribute?" Marcus asked.

"We're not sure." Izzy answered. "It's a rookie insect digimon with the virus attribute and associated with the wind guardians family. Other then that, nothing for certain."

"Guys." JP called out with his digivice in hand as Yoshi slowed the car to a stop. "I think this is a partner digimon. I've found another digivice."

* * *

The festivities around him took his mind off all the new facts he was forced to process. Hiroaki Kanbara took in the gathering of youths and small creatures that partake in games, all of them wishing his youngest a happy birthday. And reminding him that he wasn't alone in this world. Eventually, he managed to pull Blake and Tai aside, and into his office with the orange reptile that accompanied the google wearing teen.

"Someone named Blake Star told you to give this too me?" Blake asked the man, just to clarify. Again, Hiroaki nodded. "Now that's just creepy. Why am I instructing you to give me things?"

"I don't follow." Tai spoke up.

"Blake Steorra." Blake said slowly. "It's old english. My biological father's last name with the name my mother gave me at birth. It reflects the title Black Star. The name I am remembered as though out creation." Tai nodded, realising now what he was referring to.

"I still don't understand." Hiroaki said.

"There's a lot of things you don't really understand." Blake reminded him as he pulled a silver laptop with an apple on the lid, out of his bag.

"You had that on you the whole time?" Tai asked shocked as Blake inserted the SD card. A box appeared on the screen asking for a password.

"It's encrypted. It needs an deception key." Blake pointed out.

"She said the key is your identity." Hiroaki said. Blake typed one phase in, and was denied access. He typed another, only to be denied again. The third time proved to be the last when the computer accepted the key and the contents became open to them. Blake clicked on the file named 'Detained_31' and opened it.

It was an arrest report. Names and locations were blacked out, even the detainee. But Blake didn't need the name. The photo was enough.

"He kinda looks like you Tai." Agumon helpfully pointed out.

Tai saw the photo. He almost didn't recognise the young man in the mugshot. He was older, about ten years, his hair was bushier, his eyes showed a hardened solider rather then a carefree teenager, still determined despite his cause being a lost one. What stuck him heard was the scar running down his face. It looked like a painful addition to his facial features.

"What is this?" Tai asked, trying not to let his voice weaver.

"You know the french term Deja vu?" Blake asked. "It means Already Seen. The term for this is Could've Seen, or Aurait vu. It's used to describe futures that could or might have been possible."

"So this could still happen?" Hiroaki demanded, afraid.

"Maybe." Blake huffed, finding another file, this one modified yesterday, named 'Event_1.' He opened it. It was an autopsy report for a… "Rika Nonaka? Says her body was found… the day I arrived. Looks like she was impaled by three sharp knives… Cerberumon."

"What?"

"Something made him go after Shinya before he had a chance to harm Rika." Blake answered. "Something altered the destiny of this timeline before I arrived here. Another Dimension Jumper maybe? This woman… what did she look like? Accent?"

"She sounded american." Hiroaki answered.

"That one was created today." Tai pointed out. It was a file named 'Event_4.' Blake opened it to find a familiar pair of glasses and purple hair.

"The Digimon Emperor." Agumon gasped.

"Who?" Hiroaki asked.

"A human kid that's been causing a mess of trouble on the eastern continent of the Digital World." Blake explained. "Erecting Control Spires and making Digimon into his mind controlled slaves. It's been causing some erosion in the barrier between worlds. Probably causing digimon to enter this world." Tai read ahead. The file wasn't redacted, even the name Sam Itchijouji was still readable. "Koichi brought up his brother. He said Loweemon told him to get away from him."

"Says here that he was found in Chinatown in Yokohama…" Tai read the date and time. "Two hours ago by DATS agents."

* * *

It was in a local hospital that Clair stood by the bedside of the alleged Digimon Emperor, with the bag of his belongings in hand.


	14. Now You See It

**Chapter Thirteen: Now You See It…**

"These clothes have seen better days." Clair observed, looking at the short sleeve hoodie with various tears and stains.

"Something's not adding up here." The hologram of Blake pointed out. "These clothes belong to kid who's stranded in another dimension. He should be wearing something that spells eighties has-been."

"Look for his digivice." Tai suggested in the background. It occurred to him that the girl wouldn't know what it looked like, and that he wasn't sure what it looked like either.

"Electronics." She upturned the bag over the table and a small handheld device fell out, along with a small handfull of cards, some notebooks and stationery. It was a silver and blue digivice, with an inferred scanner and card reader. She lifted it up and showed it to Blake. He in turn produced his own device and compared it to the one in Clair's hand.

"That's not the black digivice." Agumon pointed out.

"That settles it then. But that means he still has a partner somewhere." Blake pondered. "The report said he called it, their word, not mine, Fanbeemon."

"Good to have a name since he or she isn't talking much either." Clair answered. "They were both knocked out by the crossing. Memory loss and fatigue assured. I've already let the nurses know." She put down the digivice and picked up a ratty notebook. The first dozen pages were filled with math equations. Then it started to look like a journal. "Looks like he wrote his adventures down. That's wise."

"Has he dated it?" Blake asked. She nodded.

"It starts in October, 1995." Clair answered.

"Around the same time he disappeared. And the last entry?"

"May, 1996. Only nine months has passed from his perspective." Clair concluded. "He's going to get a very shaky reality check when he comes to. So are his parents when they get the news."

"They haven't contacted his parents yet?" Blake asked.

"DATS are delaying until they know more about the boy's condition. That and trying to explain why he's still twelve. Rumour has it that their youngest, now eldest, is a famous genius."

"This would happen to be Ken Ichijouji would it?"

"I couldn't care less. I've seen their research on the Digital World."

"And…"

"I need to do my own research. No offence on DATS' end but I think they're hiding something." Clair informed him. "Their data just reads like someone's trying to hide something. I need Zane to get some equipment from Terra. I want to do my own analysis on the diminutional barrier."

"Send a requisition. I'll make sure it's approved by the higher up and sent with the Geronimo." Blake assured her. "And one more thing…"

"Sampson has agreed to a holo-presence conference. Noon tomorrow."

"Great. After the soccer game." Tai pointed out. There was a knock on the door.

"That's for me." Clair told them and dismissed the hologram. "Come in." The door opened and Miki stepped in.

"Thomas has made the arrangements for you, Izzy, JP and Marcus to stay at his residence tonight." She informed her. "And they're waiting on you."

'Inter-branch Holo-Conference Terminated. Processing continues…'

"Mr. Kanbara?" Agumon caught the man's attention as he contained to look over the files on the SD card. Mainly for anything on his own son. There was only one document. The file was named 'BioHybrid Gen 2' and was open on the screen. The document only had one reference to the name, and another that caught Agumon's eye. The Kanji for 'Kamiya Hikari.'

"What have you found?" Blake asked looking over the document. Immediately, his eyes narrowed and a flash of purple came from his steely retinas. Then his eyebrows rose. "Lighting Above."

"What?" Agumon asked as Blake scrolled down till the document's end.

"Is that a… digimon?" Tai asked unsure, catching sight of a number of images, all of them focused on a boy with tan skin and burnt orange hair.

"Get Takuya. And Kari in here too." Blake demanded as he read the last paragraph of the document and the bottom had a surveillance photo of a man. It was like looking in a mirror to Hiroaki, but at the same time, he was a stranger. Somewhere in the back of his head, a voice told him that the man was him from this possible future. In his arms, he was carrying what looked like a young boy with tan skin, and burnt orange hair, sharp claws at the ends of his fingers and toes and a pair of stubby horns growing from his forehead. He looked starved thin, battered and bruised and a glazed over look in his dull, tortured eyes.

"What's going on?" Kari asked as she, Takuya and Tai entered the study.

"Remember that digimon you guys keep running into?" Blake asked. "You said there was something familiar about him?" I think I know why." He pointed to the laptop. "Tai, Read the first paragraph."

Tai walked over, eyes narrowed as he began to read. "Second Generation Bio-Hybrid Experiment. Subject has genetic material from fugitive, Kanbara Takuya, a known digital organic hybrid, which was then graphed into a hu…" He stopped, reading the rest to himself. A look of surprise and horror crossed Tai's face as he scrolled down.

"What? Are you saying that…" Takuya froze. "That Flamemon is my clone?"

"More then that." Blake hesitated to continue, glancing over to Tai, who's expression had devolved into an angry rage. "There were two genetic donors for this Flamemon. The other is…"

"Is me, right?" Kari concluded.

There was a fist slamming into the desk. "Did you know about this?" He demanded.

"No." Blake answered. "I suspected something, but this didn't cross my mind. Seven hundred years and fate still finds something to throw at me."

"Are you seriously enjoying this!?" Tai yelled. Blake didn't even flinch, the smile on his face didn't even fall. But if anything, his posture showed that he respected Tai's anger, for what ever reason. "You just told my my sister is a mother at twelve."

"Same age as the child if my sums are right." Blake muttered. "Tai, it's just the brake down of Cause and Effect. It's not like you just caught them in the master bedroom with their… And there it goes again. What the hell is wrong with me? You know what. That's not the worse of it. This kid hasn't had a proper home, and with our actions in the present affecting his history, the very foundation of his existence is going to change around him. He is going to be scared and confused and already lost in a world he has no concept of understanding."

The door opened.

"You're not going to find him Takuya." The boy in question froze in the doorway.

"He's out there." Takuya shot at him. "Alone. Afraid. You said it yourself."

"And what do you plan to do when you find him?" Blake asked. "Anything you do is going to frighten him more, and right now, he's recognising both of you already. That means our actions are already taking effect. What you need to do, all of you, is be ready to bond with him when he begins to understand who you are to him. Do you understand?" They all nodded as Blake picked up the laptop and slipped it back into his bag. "You two better come up with a name too. Subject G2-1 sounds too Cypaurian."

The kids left the study, leaving Takuya's father with his thoughts, headed down stairs to rejoin the festivities. They found Shinya passed out on the sofa. He was also joined by several rookie digimon, uncoupling Neemon in his arms like a stuffed toy, and Guilmon resting his head under the boy's hand

"Wow. Little guy really wore himself out today." Tai commented. "We better get going. I've got a soccer team to coach."

"Good luck." Takuya beamed then remembered something. "My team isn't playing tomorrow. When is it?"

"Nine thirty." Tai answered. Takuya grimaced. Way too early for a Sunday. "We're playing Tamachi Junior High's Soccer Club Tomorrow."

"Koichi's school?" A smile appeared on the boy's face. "Forget supporting Davis, I'll help slaughter them."

"Sorry kid. But rules are rules. Can't play on our soccer team unless we're short on players." Tai reminded him and then added "Though a cold has empty our bench" Under his breath. "But what did Koichi do?"

Takuya shock his head. "Not Koichi. His school. He's there because of a scholarship for disadvantaged students, and he works hard to make his mom proud and to keep it. But the other kids… they can be absolute jerks. Including that Ichijouji kid. And their homeroom teacher let's him get away with everything. Something about caring more about Donkey Madness then his own students."

"Sounds like a real charmer." Kari deadpanned.

"Wait. Ichijouji? As in Ken Ichijouji?" Tai demanded.

"Yeah? Why?" Takuya asked.

"His brother appeared in Yokohama this evening with a digimon." Blake answered for Tai. "And a digivice in his possession, and we practically mistook him for the emperor. In addition to that, Koichi confided to me that Loweemon told him to get away from the boy. This is starting to fill in a very disturbing puzzle. Too many things are happening around this kid. Either this is coincidence, or a really big clue to the Emperor's motives and identity is right here."

"Bokomon!" They heard Zoe yell.

"I'm guessing Bokomon is impressing Zoe with his new found language skills." Takuya pointed out. "Or lack there of."

"Takuya! Buonasera." Bokomon called out as they walked over. "This is such a fascinating part of human culture. Celebrating the anniversary of one's birth. Tell me, does the cake symbolise the sharing of the past year with friends and family?"

"Sure Bokomon." Takuya nodded. "See you've been keeping yourself busy."

"There's so much diversity with human cultures." Bokomon cheered. "From the Ancient Far East to the Decadent Western World with the African Wilds and the Arab Traditions in between. Did you know that it was Italian explorer Christopher Columbus that discovered the content of America while looking for passage to the east by going west."

"Sì. E so che ha ricevuto finanziamenti da re Ferdinando e la regina Isabella di Spagna." Blake informed the scholar digimon, earning confused looks from everyone but Zoe.

"Parli italiano?" Zoe said shocked before remembering something. "Universal Translator?"

"That and six years in fifteenth century Florence, learning under Leonardo Da Vinci." He answered. "Well, when I say learning under, I was actually waiting for a commission. Man's one hell of a procrastinator. And his assistant…" He was interrupted by a beeping. He produced his digivice first before Tai did. His was beeping urgently too.

"It's never done this before." Takuya pointed out as his started beeping urgently too.

No one notice Guilmon flicker out of existence for a moment.

'Unknown Network Interface Reporting Attempted Tunnelling Attack. Recalculating Processing Efficiently…

'Interference Detected in the Shinjuku City Ward. Monitor via Emulated Electro-Magnetic Interface; Standard 802.11ac.'

'Processing Continues…'

Morning creeped up on the city of Tokyo quietly, the unsuspecting children suddenly getting a rude awaking when the bright sunshine entered though their window. Above a bakery in the Kawasaki Shopping District of Shinjuku, Takato rushed out of the building with a pile of day old bread in his bag, cursing to himself that he was going to miss the soccer game as he pedalled towards the Kanbara residence. Meanwhile, an underground government agency began to find readings that were confusing and disturbing. In a hotel room, two foreigners were puzzled about the actions of one's computer as it took defensive measures against an unknown attacker. On the other side of the Rainbow Bridge, the artificial island of Obadia, the Kamiya household rose slowly contrasting to the Motomiya apartment that received a rather rude awaking…

Of Jun's screaming.

Davis shot upright in shock. There are few things in the world that could wake Davis up on a Sunday Morning. His older sister screaming bloody murder, and Veemon running into his room.

"Hide me Davis!" He yelled. The boy in question grabbed his Digivice and stored the blue reptile into the device, then stuffed it under the covers just as an enraged Jun barged in with a broom in both hands.

"Where is it!?" She screamed. "It's in here somewhere!"

"What the hell Jun!?" Davis demanded.

"Davis! There's a lizard in the apartment! A fire breathing lizard!"

"Wha…"

"Shh!" She hissed as she walked closer to the desk, treading carefully around discarded snack food wrappers, books and the half eaten sandwich she decided not to question, and found the rodent in question. She hit it with the broom, only to hit the light fixture when she brought the broom down. The fixture fell from it's fitting and hit the ground, causing Jun to jump and turn to see the damage she's done.

"Thanks Jun. I can rest assured that we will be safe from killer lights." Davis shot as his older sister. "Now out!" He yelled, practically jumping out of his bed to shove her out of his room and slam the door behind her. Once her protests had stopped, Davis retrieved his digivice from the folds of his sheets and released Veemon from the device.

"What were you doing in Jun's room?" Davis demanded as he retrieved his soccer kit.

"I smelt a digimon Davis." Veemon defended. "He was practically standing over your sister was a fireball in his hand."

"Wha… Where is he now?"

"He ran off when Jun screamed. I don't blame him. It really hurt my ears."

"Okay. I'm going to get ready for the game. When Jun and my parents leaves, you can watch cartoons." Davis left the room, slipped into the bathroom. When he left, dressed in his soccer uniform… he saw Veemon sitting atop the couch, with half of him bleached out.

"Veemon!"

"Nice serve Gwen." Sora said wearily, missing the ball because of her headache. "Why don't you two play for a while?"

"Whatever." Was the response from one girl, Sora wasn't sure who, as she walked over to her bag and grabbed her water bottle. Hiding behind the umpire's chair, Biyomon looked worriedly at her partner.

"Are you feeling okay Sora?" She asked.

"It's just this headache Biyomon." Sora answered. "I'll be alright. Biyomon!"

"Yutaka?"

The boy in question stirred from his feeble attempt at sleep when he heard his younger brother knock at the door. His eyes lids were heavy with sleep but fear and guilt prevented him from sleep. An irrational and ill placed fear of his own sibling.

"Mom says breakfast is ready. Yutaka?"

Tommy sounded hurt. And for very good reason in Yutaka's mind. He emerged form the tangle of sheets, looked around his room for the door, pass the synthesiser he had to practice and experiment on, pass the pile of week old clothes, and pass the calendar still hung on March, he found the door closed, and locked.

That's when Tommy's pain filled cries pierced the air.

"Maybe Calumon was right about not having a partner." Guilmon said thoughtlessly as he, Takuya and Shinya walked down the street. People turned to see the red dinosaur walking down the street, beside the two Kanbara siblings. Guilmon caused a stir among the population, but his words caused Shinya to look at Guilmon worriedly.

"Guilmon, you want to leave Takato?" Shinya asked the goofy red dinosaur.

"No. Does Takato want me to leave?" It was Guilmon's turn to be concerned.

"Sometimes Guilmon buddy, you can be very confusing." Takuya said smiling. "Speaking of…" He pointed towards Takato who was peddling at full speed.

Then Shinya noticed something wrong with Guillmon's legs. It suddenly looked like he was being erased out of existence.

At the same time, Takuya watched as Takato fell forward, arms and head over his handlebars. The bike lost momentum and Takato hit the pavement. A crowd gathered at Takuya ran up to help his friend, ignoring the almost burning sensation that went though his veins.

'Unknown Network Interface has reported breach to Data Protection Field. Analysing Data…

'Native Lifeforms under Direct Threat. Priority Absolute.'

"There's that signal again."

"The tracer's picking up something."

As the two technicians worked, green text appeared on the dome shaped screens.

'Attack originating in Tokyo, Shinjuku City. Implementing Preventative Measures to Unknown Network Interface. Security Systems Maximised.'

"What is this?"

'Disrupting Network Activity. Distributed Denial of Service Counter Attack now in Progress from Severs in Melbourne, Johannesburg, Edinburgh and Seattle. Attacker's Progress Halted.'

"It looks like some sort of program."

'Spyware Detected on Emulating Electromagnetic Network Interface. Priority lowered.

'Encrypting Data Protection Field. Preventive Measures Installed. Proceed to Lower Priority.'

"Call Yamaki!"

'Shutting down Emulated Electromagnetic Networking Interface. Spyware Attack Foi…'

"I've lost the tracer."

'Encrypting Data Protection Field Completed. Actively Monitor Unknown Network Interface for new attacks. Processing continues…'

Shinya blinked and Guilmon's legs were solid again. The red dinosaur turned to the boy with a child like look of guilt on his face.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

"What happened?" Takato asked as his vision cleared, finding Takuya among the crowd standing around him.

"You just passed out, while on a bike, in the middle of the side walk." Takuya explained as his brother and Guilmon came up behind him, much to the surprise of the crowd. "You and you're costume Gill. Come on, we can have Joe meet us at the Cafe around the corner." Takato didn't protest as Takuya was helped up. Shinya got the bike and Guilmon followed.

"Tommy!" Yutaka leapt from his bed, unlocked the door and yanked it open to find his brother on the floor, sweating, breathing heavy and curled up on himself, like he was in unbearable pain. He knelled by the boy as he uncurled from his position, looking up at his older brother with uncertainty.

"Tommy!" Their mother had ran upstairs to find both her sons on the floor. "What happened?"

"I…" Tommy stammered. "He…"

"I rushed out of my room without looking and ran into Tommy." Yutaka tried to blow off. "I thought I was late for school."

He looked back to Tommy who had a look of relief. Yutaka on the other hand was now very scared for another reason. Something was happening to his brother. And it caused him pain.

Davis was taken aback by what he was seeing. Half of Veemon looked like he was being erased, faded and almost like… static.

"Veemon!"

The blue reptile jumped up and assumed a battle position, after that imp digimon attacking Jun, he wasn't taking any chances. In doing so, interrupted what ever was erasing him, and he was solid again. When he saw it was just Davis, he relaxed.

"What is it Davis?" Veemon asked.

"Are you okay buddy?" Davis asked confused.

"Yeah Davis? Why do you ask?"

Yamaki had to agree with the psychologist. The constant opening and closing of his lighter was a habit that's linked to his current attempt to quit smoking. Every time he thought about a cigarette, the first thing he went for is his lighter. He tried something different this time. Shinjuku during a Sunday wasn't ideal. Some districts had shut down roads during weekends, allowing only foot traffic in a Pedestrian Paradise, but in West Shinjuku, roads were crucial, despite the fact traffic seemed to shut down on it's own accord.

His phone rang as he emerged from under an overpass. He pocketed his lighter and answered it. "This had better be important." Rilay's voice greeted his ears.

"Sir, we've been getting some strange readings, along with a possible intrusion, and one of the researchers needs you to explain something to him."

Yamaki sighed. "I don't know why I bother explaining. None of these imbeciles understand what I say anyway." He moaned into the receiver.

"So, what should I tell him?"

"That he's a vicious little toady." With another grated sigh, he added "I'll be there shortly." He hung up the call, slipped the phone back into his jacket pocket. He began making his way back under the overpass…

"What was that?"

He turned around… only to find there was nothing there.

"I could have sworn I felt something." Satisfied he was paranoid, he turned back and walked back towards the Government Building. Had he stayed for a moment longer, he would have seen it, emerge from behind one of the columns.

With one growl, like a horrible gut wrenching sound, the humanoid, faceless creature retreated back into the shadows, and almost desolated into it with one word echoing.

"Fool!"

'All Processing Units Functioning.' The command prompt responded.

"Are you sure?" Blake asked. "I can't see anything wrong with the Tokyo Server?"

"The Sheila is struggling with something mate. I can feel it. Amy is having a problem."

Blake looked up from his laptop screen. "You named a server Amy?!" Blake said shocked. "Please tell me you didn't give it a holographic avatar of a Japanese Courtesan." No response. "Why do I even both… Rika!?"

In the bussing WildKat Cafe on Cat Street, one of the more popular spots in Shibuya, Blake couldn't help but notice that the Digimon Queen herself had entered the building, accompanied by a middle aged woman in a kimono. The girl in question sighed and tired not to pay attention to the boy that just said her name in hope that her grandmother didn't hear. Her hopes fell when she spoke up.

"Who's that Rika?" She asked.

"Just some kid I ran into." Rika lied, then used the obvious foreigner status to cement the lie further. "He needed some help with a map."

"Lets go over an say hi." She insisted.

"But Grandma…" Rika tried to protest, but the old woman was very much insistent.

"…with data based life forms, I don't need the main servers having mood swings." Blake hissed at the dark skinned boy. "Uninstall the…" He was interrupted by Rika clearing her throat. "Not now Rika. I'm verba…" He turned around to see Rika and the woman standing behind him. "I mean it's good to see you again Rika." Blake corrected. "And it's nice to meet you Miss Nonaka. You have an amazing daughter."

"Oh brother." Rika rolled her eyes as Seiko chuckled.

"Such a charmer." She said out loud. "Did you find what you were looking for Mr…"

"Blake. Just call me Blake. And yes. I did eventually. Your daughter was a fantastic help." Rika was relieved when it sounded like he took the hint and played along. "Rika, you haven't meet my friend Joey, have you."

"G'day." Joey nodded. Rika responded with a quite nod.

"While we're on introductions, this is my Grandmother, Seiko Hata." Rika pointed out.

"Grandmother?" Blake questioned.

"Surprised?"

"Not really. Would you like to join us." Blake offered. "We were about to order another round. We can talk about that card game you champion. I heard about this up and coming Digimon Emperor."

Rika raised an eyebrow. She was interested. There was going to be fighting, and it was a chance for Renamon to get stronger. It was also a chance for her to enter the digital world again and get a better idea on how to make Renamon digivolve, among other things.

Eventually, Seiko and Joey went to order, leaving Blake and Rika alone at the table. Blake opened the laptop.

"Ken Ichijouji. Yeah. I've heard of him. I've always thought he was just another stuck up boy genius with something to prove." Rika pointed out. "Let me guess, you want Renamon to follow him around."

"I doubt anything he does in this world would help anything." Blake answered. "Besides, Koichi goes to his school, and I've slipped a bug into his digivice last week. Other then him praising his own genius, and brushing off every control spire we destroy, we haven't got much. I don't think he's doing any actual planing."

"Then why tell me any of this?" Rika asked.

"I think you need to be informed." Blake answered. "And you seem like a nice enough person, under all that tough girl act. You're intelligent. You could have been a spoilt brat, had anything she wanted but instead, you made a name for yourself, instead of using your mother's. You also care about your partner, and for Takato, even if he treats Guilmon like a pet, and you respect the older DigiDestine, Tai and Matt at least from the Diablomon Incident. And then there's Koji."

"What about Koji?" Rika asked.

"What about Koji?" Takuya repeated. There were a few gaps from the other patrons when the boys were followed by a red dinosaur. It was defused by a kid running over to 'See the cool costume' with Shinya running interferance.

"Great. Just what I need. Double the Googleheads. You don't look too well Takato." Rika pointed out. "You look like you fell of something."

"He fainted while riding his bike down the sidewalk." Takuya answered for the boy. "That's not the weird thing." Blake stood up to examine the quite Takato.

"Weird as in 'Everyday' weird or 'Oh god oh god we're all going to die' weird?" Blake asked.

"I don't know." Takuya answered. "While he was passed out, I felt this wave of really raw pain over come me. And Shinya mentioned that Guilmon was disappearing."

"You think it's a digimon thing?" Rika asked.

"Either that, or one big convergence of coincidences. I need more data." Blake pointed out. Rika about to say something when Seiko and Joey returned to the table.

"What a realistic costume." Seiko praised Guilmon. "He almost looks real from here. Who are these guys?"

"Friends of my cousin." Blake answered. "We're going to his soccer game to cheer him on. Time's gotten away from me. I really need to go. It was nice to see you again Rika. A pleasure Miss Hata. Lets go guys." Blake left the three and walked out with the two google wearing boys.

"Grandma. Can we go shopping another time? There's something I need to do." Rika asked.

"Sure Rika, If Joey doesn't mind keeping an old woman company." Seiko bargained. Joey agreed, much to Rika's appreciation. She ran to catch up to the boys.

'Back Tracking Spyware to Source. Location: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.'

"Are you okay Mr. Kanbara?"

Hiroaki looked up to see the young technician, one of the two HYPNOS operators currently on shift this morning. Tally Onodera, like her counterpart Riley, were hired right out of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. She herself was one of the kidnapped citizens held in the convention centre while staying overnight at a friends apartment after a day trip.

"I know working Sundays are rough but you look tired." Tally continued.

"I just have a lot on my mind." Hiroaki answered. "Takuya and Shinya especially." Shinya mostly considering he woke everyone up in the middle of the night, including their digital house guests.

"Those sons of yours. How are they? You haven't talked about them much. How much have they changed?"

"They've certainly changed." Hiroaki chuckled. They turn into the thing were supposed keep from the public. He mentally added.

"Has Takuya found a girl friend yet?" Tally asked. "I bet a lovely blonde girl."

"Brunette." Hiroaki muttered absentmindedly.

"Nice girl?"

"I suppose so. Considering we've been spying on her family for the past four years." Hiroaki answered. Tally looked at Hiroaki confused but the clue fell into place.

"Have you told Yamaki?" She whispered. "You really should tell him."

"I can't. Considering they have more in common then I'd like to admit."

"You mean… You have a digimon in your home?"

Hiroaki nodded, not wanting to give an accurate number or anything else. Tally looked torn between her work station and her boss.

"Which one?" She asked.

"The Kamiya girl." He answered. Tally nodded. She knew she could help with that one. No one would be the wiser if some wire taps went missing on occasion, and she hadn't head anything about new children on the taps she was monitoring. Those kids can keep a secret, but then again, it's possible that digimon were just walking around on the street and they weren't noticing.

"You sure?" Marcus asked. "Thomas too."

"Their official records state that they were recruited to DATS in the past three years. Thomas Twelve months ago, Yoshi just over two and a half years ago. Miki and Megumi joined seven years ago, while Sampson was transferred from the local police department after some unknown case." Clair locked her tablet and placed it back on the table as Thomas' butler came in with two cups of steaming hot tea. "Besides, you two are more alike then you might give him credit for."

"How?" Marcus demanded.

"Mr. Sasaki here tells me that Thomas attended medical school so that he can find a cure for the illness that plagues his half sister, Relena. She lives in Austria with her biological parents. But Thomas was born out of wedlock." As Clair spoke, said butler was placing the cups of tea before the two and turned to leave. "Thank you Mr. Sasaki. And where you've lost a father, Thomas has lost his mother and was taken back to Austria."

"Big brother will do anything for his sister." Marcus concluded as Thomas entered the room with Yoshi behind him.

"This better be important. We're about to leave." Thomas shot at the woman.

"Marcus?" Clair asked. He nodded. "Am I right in stating that DATS' ultimate goal is to ensure peace between this world and the digital world?"

"Correct."

"And I'm sure a human murdered in the digital world would not be beneficial to DATS' interests." Clair produced a file and handed it to Thomas. "Autopsy report."

"What? When did this happen?!" Yoshi yelled at the two boys that entered the room.

"Because both Tai Kamiya and Takuya Kanbara instructed them to remain quite." Marcus defended. "How did we know that DATS didn't orchestrate his murder?"

Clair chuckled at the big word. Obviously wasn't Marcus' words.

"That's absurd." Yoshi protested.

"Especially when this woman died of an auto immune disorder." Thomas added.

"Woman?!" Izzy, JP, and Marcus yelled simutatiously.

"Wrong file." Clair amended, pulling another file from under the table. "Autopsy report of one Doctor Spenser Damon."

Thomas looked at Marcus, shocked before taking the report from Clair. He looked at the contents briefly. "Shot taken to the head. Says that death occurred in the past twenty four hours. Though, in the digital world, a corpse wouldn't decay from the point of death, so it fits… what this amendment?" He showed Clair the file.

"Delta Radiation Samples places the decease on world, but event occurred approximately five years before Time Fissure Event." Clair read. "Doesn't determine Time of Death, but for those five years, the murder could not have occurred, unless you happen to have access to dimension jumping or time travel technology, but even the research branch of the Stockholm Royal University of Science doesn't have something like that. Believe me, I've checked when I lectured there on the concepts of Nano-technology in Medicine." She leaned in closer to Marcus. "Uncover investigation involving an extortion racket."

"Wait. Professor Clair Wells?" Thomas asked. "You're that Clair Wells."

"Yes. You were the young boy that attended my lecture. Front of the room. You wanted to know if Nanobots would repair the Myelin sheath of nerve cells. It made sense now that I found out Relena has…"

"Toei Disorder." JP muttered. The room turned to the jumpsuit wearing boy. "Koji and Koichi's mother has the same thing. I over heard Koichi telling Koji about it last year."

"Suffers have a broad range of symptoms." Izzy followed. "From occasional tremors to crippling paralysis. Conic sufferers even had reported welts appearing over their skin without any apparent cause. No treatment, but it's very rare."

JP recalled watching Koichi managing his mother's symptoms.

"That's what the case study was for?" Izzy asked.

"Toei Disorder is a subtle auto-immune disorder that attacks particular cells in the body. And can often be misdiagnosed. Only sure way is by autopsy, or a full genetic profile." Clair informed them.

"How can you be sure?" Thomas demanded. "The best doctors in Austria couldn't diagnose her."

"Because they didn't have Relena's genetic profile." Clair answered. "With that information, a competent researcher can discover a cure within a year."

"How did you even get Relena's genetic material?" Thomas demanded. Clair just reached into her pocket and pulled out a hair clip.

'Data Packages Received. Forwarding to IPv5 Address ending 7-Beta-9-Omega-Alpha…'

Blake's phone vibrated, informing him that Clair's requests for equipment have been approved and will be waiting for someone to sign it out tomorrow. He dismissed the message as the train pulled into the Shimbashi Station for their line change.

They weren't the only ones waiting on the elevated platform.

"Hey!" Takuya called out as he saw the Yin Yang Twins standing on the platform, along with TK and Zoe.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up Kanbara." Koji called out, then saw Rika following them. "Any reason why you're following my friends Nonoka?"

"It's none of your business wolf boy." Rika shot back.

"Something smells good." Guilmon sniffed. Zoe fiddled with the basket in her hand.

"Hang on, that smells like…" Blake took a deep breath though the nose. "Mmm. Bomboloni. I can smell the ricotta filling from here."

"I might have baked a little something Guilmon." Zoe answered before winking. "But it's a surprise. What's wrong with Takato? You didn't sick Renamon on Guilmon again." She directed the question to Rika.

"No. But did anything strange happen this morning?" Blake asked.

"Other then Miss Sunshine there." Koji shot back.

"I felt something tingle. But that's about it." Patamon said from atop TK's head as the train pulled in. "Does that help?"

They made good time in getting to the soccer field as Takato regained his energy and began to walk on his own, with a worried Takuya and Guilmon by his side. As they descended down the grandstand, they found most of the DigiDestine standing on the field side with the Obadia Team in their red uniforms running though their streaches, and surprising, standing with Tommy was…

"What's Yutaka doing here?" Koji asked, pointing out the boy.

"I don't know." Takuya answered. "But he looks really on edge."

"Takuya!" Tai called out as they got to the field side. "Still want to crush Tamachi?" He asked the boy, displaying a red soccer jersey. "Hirofumi came down with high fever this morning and his parents want him to stay home. And we're short a player. I've already squared it away with the ref."

"You bet." Takuya beamed as he took the shirt. Blake laughed as the warrior of flame ran off towards the bathrooms. Koji was beside him shaking his head and smiling.

"Was he like this when you guys first entered the digital world?" Blake asked.

"Worse." Koji answered. "At least he thinks first before jumping into situations. Then I wouldn't be caught dead cheering him on at a soccer game before any of it happened. You read Bokomon's book?"

"Last night. Cover to cover. Original Eastern Digi-code."

"You learnt to read digi-code?"

"Wasn't that hard. It's just another writing system of japanese. Why do you guys need so many writing systems? I'm sure one would have been plen…"

"Excuse me." Koji heard Yutaka speak up and interrupt Blake's rant.

"Yes Yutaka?" Koji spat. There was no mistaking the venom in his words, enough so that Yutaka was taken aback by the potency of it. He stuttered a response.

"Spit it out man. We haven't got an eternity." Blake pushed.

"Tommy can turn into a… digimon." Yutaka struggled to get the last word out, as if to confirm it by saying it. "Does… Is there… What risks are there…"

"Yutaka. Stop." Blake protested. "Breathe. What is the problem?"

"I don't know." Yutaka admitted as Rika walked up behind Blake. "Tommy was just in extreme pain this morning."

"Was?" Koji asked concerned. "Did he say something?"

"No." Yutaka said. "But, he just screamed and he looked like he in unbearable pain."

"When was this?" Blake demanded.

"Around eight thirty? Maybe a little later." Yutaka answered.

Rika pulled Blake towards her and whispered "The two might be connected."

"Wait a minute!" Davis yelled, running up from his streches. "That's when Veemon started disappearing. He didn't even notice."

"Like part of him was being erased by an eraser?" Blake asked.

"Yeah." Davis agreed. "How'd you know?"

"Shinya said the same thing to Takuya this morning." Blake answered. "And the time codes on our Proxy Server said it was trying to prevent an attack on an unknown network interface around that time. This is all connected somehow."

As they were talking, the Tamachi team's mini bus arrived at the field. All those present watched as the team poured out. Yolei yelped form a pinch from Cody and Takuya ran back to the field, with his shirt, vest, hat and googles in hand, and wearing the number 4 jersey. Rika however made an observation.

"Where is he?" She questioned.

"You mean he's not here?!" Yolei yelled. "I can't believe he's not coming!"

"I can't believe I came all the way out here just to watch some sweaty boys kick a soccer ball around." Rika moaned. "At least it's not dress shopping."

"Come on. Let's just find some seats and watch the game." Takato pointed out.

"Hey! Davis! Takuya! Good luck out there!" Tai called out. "The Tamachi Team are still the reigning champions. Don't lose so badly."

"Thanks a lot Tai." Davis moaned as the players ran out to the field. Yutaka and Tommy however waited on the street side for Joe, but they still got a good view of the game. Then the ref's whistle sounded, the game began.

'Monitoring Interference. Processing Unit Efficiently at 98%. Recalibrate…'

Hiroaki Kanbara found himself standing beside his Yamaki, and the Chief of Cabinet, unsure of what he was to do. Everytime he summoned up the courage to say something, it was taken away by memory of his sons, Shinya, scared and afraid, Takuya, trying to remain strong for his little brother but inwardly hopeless and lost. The part of him that put his sons, and his family first told him to walk away, while another part continued to argue that he had to do his job. He had to protect the world…

But who would protect his sons?

"You see, the network of interconnected electronics has essentially created a whole new plain of existence a digital plain." Yamaha explained as best he could. "This system, HYPNOS, monitors that world and every exchange of information across it, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Simple enough for you?"

"Do you keep track of personal data?" The Official asked. He was new to his position, just appointed by the recently elected Prime Mister.

"How else could we monitor criminal activity?" Yamaki pointed out.

"If any of the general public found out about this, we'd be treated as criminals." Yamaki walked around before the official as he finished voicing his concerns. "Be sure to keep this very quite."

"Really. Gee that never occurred to me." Yamaki said mockingly. "Liston, there's no need for any of you to worry. We've got everything well under control."

"No. You've got nothing under control Yamaki. You've shown yourself to be powerless stop those anomalies. Find a way to stop them from bio-emerging and find the ones that have already come though. And eliminate them."

Neither of them saw Hiroaki flinch. It became clear that they were determined to get rid of these digimon, no matter what… but a thought did occur to him. The man himself said it, they'd be treated like criminals if the public found out.

That boy, Yamato Ishida. His father is a reporter, working for Fuji TV…

In a moment, Kanbara had a plan formulated.

'Error: Line 241. Perimeters for subroutine 'Concerned' have fulfilled. Worry Mode Engaged…'

Half time arrived with the ref's whistle. While Tamachi played well, Obadia managed to get a nine point lead with the star players of two teams. But it was Davis that took the lead as the team's acting captain. However, Takuya found out that his digimon strength and agility had bleed into his human form. During a penalty shot, Takuya had an internal conversation with Agunimon. Apparently, BurningGreymon has a competitive spirt and taken a liking to his game. Now the boy needs to strike a balance between his beast spirt's need to crush the competition, and good sportsmanship.

And it didn't help when his eyes flashed bright blue every time he and the Obadia team scored a goal. And Kari's photo caught every detail.

"Well, at least it isn't red eye." Kari reassured him. "But, I don't know. Agunimon's eye colour does suit you."

"Seconded." Blake added, handing Takuya a contact case. "But best we adjust the eye colour before posting it to Facebook. We don't want anyone asking inconvenient questions. Next one."

"Nice headshot there Davis." Kari observed.

"Yeah, I do look handsome, don't I." Davis boasted.

"He meant with the soccer ball air head." Rika scolded.

"Remind me again why you're still here?" Koji demanded.

"As soon as I figure that one out wolf boy, you'll be the second to know."

"You two are doing great out there." Koichi praised.

"Yeah, we so kicked butt." Davis continued, his ego inflated.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself." Tai reminded them. "You've gotten a good lead but anything could happen. And Ken could still show up."

"And so could our favourite bass player and his brother." Blake informed them.

"Sorry we're late guys!" Matt called out as he and his brother came up to the group. "Nine goals against the champions. Not bad Davis. Though I see Takuya's helping."

"Lay off Matt." TK protested, then his gaze fell on Rika. "What's she doing here?"

"Would you believe that I'm a die hard fan girl?" Rika said sarcastically.

"Gee. I never would have guessed." Matt laughed. "Anyway, I just loss a band member. Our keyboard player is moving to Okinawa. His father just got a job with a company there and until we find someone, we're not going to be doing any gigs."

"Perils of being a teenage star." Blake joked. "All the responsibilities of a celebrity, none of the freedom. And I should know."

"You could always ask Yutaka." Takuya suggested. "Tommy's brother. I know he likes to experiment with one on occasion."

"Any good?" Matt asked. Takuya shrugged as the medical student approached. "Worth a try. Joe? What are you doing here?"

"Soccer field call." Joe tried to joke. "Someone wanted me to do a check up of Tommy."

"And the reason he's not at the hospital?" TK asked.

"We think it's because of his digimon sprit." Blake answered. "And the consensus?"

"Clean bill of health as far as I can tell." Joe answered. "But if it's as bad as Yutaka said it was, ideally, twenty four hours under observation… I'll stick around just in case."

"Now if only that jerk would show up, then I can say this day wasn't wasted." Rika huffed.

"If he was here right now, I'll show him…" Davis started, only for several screaming girls to bring Ken's arrival to his attention, including Yolei yelling from the grandstands.

"There he is air head." Rika stated. "You going to show him or what?"

"Me and my big mouth." Davis complained.

"Nice work Motomiya." Koji deadpanned. "Any chance you can bring IceDevimon down on us?"

"Lets not go though that again." Takuya pleaded as the purple headed boy came down the stairs towards the field. He stopped midway. Rika got the impression that he was looking right at them.

"He really doesn't look so special." Koji pointed out. "He's just another kid."

"So do you Minamoto. Except you turn into a digimon welding beams of light as swords." Blake countered. "There's a movie reference in there somewhere, I just can't remember which one."

"While your doing that, I'm going to talk to him. Digimon tyrant to digimon tyrant." Rika informed them as she turned and started in his direction.

"Wait. You're just going to walk up to him and be nice to him?" Tai asked.

"Unless you can suggest a more direct approach to introducing yourself?" She challenged. "Didn't think so. Don't worry, I doubt he'll try something, and I've got an army of googleheads behind me in case he isn't as smart as he think he is." She continued towards him, dreading the idea of having to be nice to someone, especially this jerk. Fortunately for her, circumstances had decidedly worked in favour of a less pleasant approach.

He turned, and not looking where he was going, rammed right into her. Instead of feigning polite, she feigned anger.

"Hey! Watch were you're going kid!" Rika snapped. "What are you?! Blind or stupid!?" Inwardly, she smiled as the boy clenched a fist with frustration. Then in an instant, it disappeared.

"Sorry. I really need to watch were I'm going." Ken said smoothly. "I guess I was so excited for the game." He had this self accomplished smile that made Rika want to have Renamon thrash him. And deep down, she just wanted to punch him. Then another thought came to her.

"Yes. You really do. I'd suggest glasses, but with your sense of direction, you probably couldn't find your way out of a cardboard box." She pressed before walking past him, making sure to let him hear the word "Idiot" as she walked off.

"Rika." Renamon told her partner. "Stay away from him."

"Why?" Rika asked. "He's just a stupid kid?"

"There's something about him that I don't like." Renamon explained. "Something evil."

"Sure mom." Rika brushed off, though grateful for her partner's concern.

"Someone knows how to keep his cool." Matt pointed out as they walked towards the grandstand and took their seats. Rika rejoined them, to the cheers and claps of her fellow digidestine, encouraging Davis and Takuya. Even Yutaka joined in with his brother and Rika made an attempt and sounding less antagonistic towards the two.

"Some nice friends you've got there Davis." Blake read Ken's lips from the distance. The ref's whistle sounded, and Ken was off like the preverbal rocket.

"Did you see that?" Takato asked. He then turned watched to see Takuya to try to intercept the ball from Ken… and it was sent to one of Davis' team mates who then sent it towards Davis. Most of the Tamachi team must have been in shock from seeing their star lose the ball so quickly that they faltered in their attempts to stop Davis. Their saving grace was that the goalie managed to stop the ball from hitting the net.

"Anyone want to tell me how a kid our age can move so fast?" Koji demanded.

"Renamon said there was something wrong about him." Rika told them.

"I don't think Davis can keep up with him." TK pointed out.

"But Takuya seems to." Zoe added. "Maybe it's because of his beast sprit?"

"Does that mean Ken's a digimon hybrid?" Tommy asked.

"I don't think so." Koichi answered. "This is different."

The game continued with Obadia still in the lead. Blake took Koichi's words seriously and slipped away to join Tai on the field side.

"Can I help you sir?"

"I'm looking for a Mr Ishida. Could you tell him that I'd like to see him in private and urgently." Kanbara told the desk attendant who then picked up a phone to call Ishida. Kanbara looked around the foyer of the Fuji TV building, rebuilt after the Fog Incident Digimon caused extensive damage to the buildings and the island itself.

"He's asking what it's about." The clerk returned.

"Tell him our sons know each other and it concerns the Fog Incident four years ago." Kanbara replied. The woman visibly stiffened but relayed the answer over the phone. Obviously she was present all those years ago.

He was then moved into an unused conference room with a cup of tea. Ishida didn't want him leaving suddenly before he got a chance to talk to him, and the scare tactic worked a little too well. He got his attention, but it's likely that Ishida will be hostile. Ten minutes later, brown haired man wearing a button up shirt and a tie entered the room.

"I'm sorry you had to wait so long sir. But we've been having some technical issues lately and they've only been getting worse." The man explained. "You said you wanted to talk about the Fog Incident four years ago?"

"In a way. Mostly about the government response, against the preserved threat of Digimon." Kanbara answered. The other man flinched. "Are you aware that your phones are tapped Mr. Ishida? That your children's digital lives are being closely monitored."

"What are you… who are you?" Ishida demanded.

"Agent Hiroaki Kanbara. I work for an organisation that endeavorers to eliminate Digimon and prevent them from entering the real world."

Ishida got the idea that what this man had to say was going to directly affect their lives.

Back at the soccer game, the atmosphere was tense as both teams struggled against each other. The Tamachi team had the Rocket on their side now, but now he was having the longest streak of bad luck. Every now and again, Blake would see the image of a humanoid fox on the field for a moment. It didn't take much to conclude that Rika had instructed Renamon to interfere with the game, much to their amusement.

Then there was Blake's suggestion of moving around Obadia's players to focus on Tamachi's weakness, and have Takuya focus on Ken exclusively. And Davis was managing to get the ball past two lines of defenders and into the net with the help of his team mates as backup.

Needless to say, the Obadia team only managed to score one goal against the Tamachi team, which is one more then the Tamachi team was able to score against Obadia, in the entire game.

"Yeah Davis!" Koichi cheered.

"Beat the snot out of him Google Heads!" Rika jeered.

"Don't stop now!" Yolei yelled.

One minute left on the clock, and the ball was now heading for the Obadia side of the field. Ken had the ball and he was aiming for a goal, only for Davis to slide in and trip the Rocket.

"Have a nice trip Ken!" Tai yelled. "See you next fall!"

The ref's whistle sounded. The clock has run out. The red Obadia Team won against the reigning champions. Social media was already alight with the news. Not surprising with all the fan girls around.

"Mota bono guys." Zoe praised. "You were great."

"Consider yourself a living legend now Davis?" TK asked.

"Don't let it go to your head Davis. It'll explode." Takuya pointed out as he messed with boy's burgundy hair.

"Yeah yeah." Davis bushed off. "From one living legend to another, could't have done it with ya Takuya. And for the record, blue is not your colour. It's a good thing Ken didn't see your eyes change colour. How did you do that anyway?"

"Those contacts…" Takuya trailed off.

"I think that little trap Ken took left a mark." Rika pointed out. "Why don't you go over there and gloat a bit, or check on your opponent?"

"Thanks Rika." Davis said as he ran over to the Tamachi team.

"Really. Don't mention it." Rika deadpanned.

"Renamon had a hand in it, didn't she." Koji accused the girl.

"Just wanted to see Ichi-jerk lose his cool." Rika shot back. "We suspect he's the emperor, but I want to be sure before we expose the Digital World to some unsuspecting jerk who doesn't already know. Besides, I'm also just proving a point."

"Hey Ken!" Davis called out. "Sorry about your leg. I guess I caught you off guard."

"I bearly felt it." Ken brushed off. "Too busy trying to score goals."

"So I guess you heard about Takuya and I." Davis said.

"I didn't hear. You won the game. Keep it up and some day you'll win a championship my worthy adversaries. But I'd like to know where that last play came from."

"Oh yeah. Tai knows a few strategies. Obadia under fifteens won the city wide championships for four years running thanks to him."

"Hey Davis."

"Speaking of… Tai. Ken was just admiring your player shift during the last half." Davis called out to his idol.

"But it wasn't my idea." Tai pointed out. "It was Blake." He pointed a finger at the boy, who in turn pointed it towards himself who then looked behind him then back at the group.

"Countering our fullbacks and midfielders moving up by reversing the positions of the Attackers was an interesting move." Ken said to the boy. "I wonder how you knew it would work."

"I play a lot of chess." Blake answered.

"We should have a game some time."

"If you're insisting. I'll open with C2 pawn to C4."

Ken looked taken aback by the forwardness of the proposal of such a challenge but complied. "That's a bold opening. Pawn to E6."

"King side knight to F3"

"Pawn to D5."

"Fascinating." Blake muttered. "Shall we exchange numbers? Pawn to D4."

"Depends. You're not going to give it to anyone?"

"Oh come on Kenny Boy. It'll be a doddle. I don't like the look of that leg however."

"I'll be fine. Knight to F6." Ken gave him his cell phone.

Blake took the phone and added his number. "Oh boy. Someone's getting aggressive. Knight B1 to C3."

"Bishop to E7."

"That's more like it." He said handing back Ken's phone. "I guess we'll meet again."

"Yes we will. My worthy advisories." Ken began to walk off. "Until we meet again in battle."

"Oh! Bishop! G5!" Blake called after him.

"What was that all about?" Tai asked. "It was like you were playing chess in your heads."

"Really? I wonder where you got that from." He winked at the boy. "Davis. You need a change of clothes, and I need to make a nuisance of myself."


	15. Now You Don't

**Chapter Fourteen: Now You Don't…**

"Our government and many others have known about digimon. After the Fog incident four years ago, a limited Defence Council of the United Nations began to take steps to set up HYPNOS. At the time, these nations were China, France, England, Russia, the United States, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Japan and Egypt. With the data they collected, they established a way to monitor for incursions by Digital Lifeforms."

"And they believe our children to have the key to doing so?" Ishida asked. Hiroaki shock his head.

"No. At the time, we believed that they had the ability to access the Digital World." Kanbara corrected. "But a year after the Diabloromon Incident, they decided to stop activity following your children's actions, now that they are convinced that they no longer had the means to access it. But they have their mobile devices monitored, just incase they do find one later."

"And what do they plan to do if they find one?" Ishida dared to ask.

"Our director has an experimental program known as Yuggoth. It hasn't been tested, but it's guarantied to delete any data that it comes in contact with, either in the digital plain, or in our world."

"Sounds dangerous." Ishida shivered, somehow imagining what it might do to Gabumon or Patamon. Images of them screaming as they're reduced to nothing flashed before his eyes.

* * *

"Double Espresso with Soy Milk for Indigo!?" The barista called out, catching Joey by surprise. While he was talking to Rika's grandmother, he had completely failed to notice a tall, slender, confident woman who was all to familiar to the aboriginal cyborg. Dressed in a purple pant suit, her vivid red hair spilled over her shoulders and deep blue eyes was Roxanne Indigo. Blake's sister.

"And one Cappuccino for Kiryu." The barista continued as he watched the red headed young woman take both cups from the counter and walk over to a…

"Are you alright dear boy?" Satori asked him as he spotted Roxanne's company. It was a well established fact in his circle that Blake was hundreds of years older then he looked, but Joey and his group found themselves in a similar position. He himself had recently celebrated his fifteenth birthday back home, but the reality was, he was nearly fifty seven, roughly. Anti-aging medication had practically held him in adolescence, despite it being illegal. While Glenn and Clair had passed their centennial, even all together, the six of them didn't come close to Blake's seven century age. Roxanne however, was in a league of her own with an age close to four thousand, most of it racked up during her business school days.

So when the Chief Executive Officer of one of the Terra's foremost technological firm walks into a cafe in a parallel universe. A dimension jumper takes notice. And when that particular red head sits across from a blond haired sixteen year old, with obvious earmarks of being a fae, there's only one thing Joey can do…

Panic.

Or in this case, thank the old woman for the coffee and run to the nearest Train Station.

* * *

"Remind me again what you're looking for?" Davis asked as he watched Blake toss the apartment, waving his phone over anything even remotely related to computers. Yutaka had accompanied them and was surprised to find the apartment occupied.

"Fire breathing lizard." Blake repeated as he looked under the couch.

"Do you mind?" Jun hissed as she backed into the corner of the sofa while this strange teenager just randomly reached under the furniture. Sure, he was cute but… there was something about him that screamed bad news.

"Of cause I mind. But I can't stop you. Ha!"

"What?" Yutaka asked. "You find something."

"Yeah." He pulled out a book and flipped though it. "Reads like a tween novel about an obsessive girl who was kidnapped by a vampire and has a crush on the cute blonde band vocalist who puts way too much hair spray in his hair. It's worse then Twlight."

"That's my Diary!" Jun yelled, snatching the book from his hands.

"I see." Blake muttered concerned. "Have you considered a good psychologist?" Davis paled visibly. Blake ignored the death glare and focused on his phone. "I'd love to stick around and make assumptions about your mental state but, I have a meeting to get to. You get a great signal from the city wide wifi network from here. I wonder what the speeds like." He walked towards the door, stopping to see Davis in his street clothes, and Yutaka who was standing by the door.

"Did you have to antagonise my sister?" Davis whispered.

"I'm only making your job easier. That's what I'm here for." Blake answered. "Besides, I really think she needs help. And that's coming form a professional madman. Now go get changed. Something smart or stylish."

He opened the door of what he assumed was Davis' room and waited for a response. Davis just walked in without complaint and closed the door behind him.

"Now for you." Blake turned to Yutaka. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Yutaka questioned.

"Ahh!" Jun's screams pieced the air as Veemon tumbled into the middle of the room. Yutaka flinched and backed into the wall. "You again!" She grabbed a broom and was about to bring it down on Veemon… only to have it ripped out of her hands and thrown across the room.

"Thank you Veemon." Blake moaned, helping the reptile up. "And you." He pointed to the girl. "Therapy. Works wonders."

"That thing tried to light my hair on fire." Jun shrieked.

"Really? That's the best your deranged imagination could come up with?" Blake asked. "I'd go with 'It pulled away the shower curtain and brandished a knife with a blood thirsty look in it's eye.' Now that's psyco."

"I'm not making this up!" Jun yelled. "I'm not crazy! He's… one of those things… those monsters that kidnapped us four years ago!"

"See. Paranoid." He said to Yutaka as walked up to the girl and looked her in the eyes. "Nothing can hurt you here." He told the girl as he placed one hand on her shoulder, and another on her cheek. "Veemon's not going to hurt anyone."

"Not… going… hurt?" Jun questioned. She was still shaking, but her tremors subsided almost instantly as she fell into Blake's chest.

"If only all my dates ended this way." Blake sighed as he lied the young woman down on the couch. Davis then entered the room in his street clothes.

"Veemon!" Davis yelled as he ran over to the little reptile. "Are you okay?"

"Just a little fall." Veemon brushed off.

"Good thing he has a hard head." Blake assured him as he moved towards the kitchen. "Must get it from his partner. Let's go."

"But…" Yutaka started. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Are any of us ever okay?" Blake asked. "She'll think Veemon was just a dream. If that's what your asking. Now let's go. I smell good old fashioned Italian food."

Davis and Veemon ran past Yutaka as he stood confused. What on Earth was Tommy into?

* * *

"Got another weird reading."

"For once, it's not a wild one."

"This is what I was talking about. I've never seen data like this."

"Send a tracer."

"Already on it… What?!"

"The tracer was absorbed. What is going on?"

* * *

"Digi-metals. Huh." Rika picked up the displayed metal of hope that TK showed her. She ignored the fact that it looked like it was painted black and the paint was now pealing off at the base to show it's bronze colour underneath. They had walked over to Obadia Park, to an isolated part of the forest area where they could talk without anyone finding them, and plenty of space for the digimon to burn off energy, outside their digivices. "In the card game, they evolve certain families of digimon into various kinds of digimon." She then looked over the crest of courage Tai presented. "But raw materials for crests?"

"They're in the card game too?" Matt asked confused.

"Crests are a component for certain matrix digi-volutions. and premium upgrade cards." Erika explained. "Courage, Love, Knowledge are common metals. Friendship, Honesty and Sincerity aren't as common. Light, Hope and Kindness are rare to come across in the card game. But the golden digi-metal, I've only ever seen it once."

"Wait. Kindness?" TK interrupted.

"Yeah. There are nine crests in the card game."

Silence fell over the group, only the laughter and playful cries of the rookie digimon and the younger kids could be heard as they played tag, or Yolei and Joey setting up a hologram array that seemed to require all their attention.

"What's the ninth crest?" Matt asked. Rika produced a card from her deck pouch.

"Kindness." She answered. Then she looked over to Takato and Henry who were talking among themselves. Henry had arrived a few minutes ago and already Takato and Shinya pulled him to one side. "Henry might know more about it."

"What makes you say that?" Tai asked.

"The video games provide a backstory to the elements of the game. I don't know if any of it is true." Rika explained.

"…It was like half of him was there and the other half was being rubbed out by an eraser." Shinya explained.

"Well Digimon aren't of this world." Henry thought. "Maybe some of them can't last long and they get pulled back into their world, or something like that. Or maybe our world eliminates them likes the body gets rid of a virus."

Takato looked horrified at the hypothesis. "But Guilmon just got here, I don't want him to disappear." He protested. "He just can't go back to the otherside."

"Momenti. The world I'm from. The world your from. They're really both the same if you think about it." Terriormon spoke up from Henry's shoulder.

"Yeah well, thank's professor but I want him here." Takato pointed out.

"That may not be possible Takato." Henry whispered just loud enough for the other two boys to hear.

"What are you trying to say Henry? Do you know something? Tell me?"

"All I know is that nothing can last forever." Henry said softly.

"You'd be surprised." Blake called out from the tree line, both ten year olds turned to the dimension jumper. "I've seen humanity outlast realities. They're just that stubborn. What's this about Guilmon being erased?"

"You heard that?" Takato questioned. Zoe, who was listening to the boy's discussion, caught something whispering in the wind, like echoes of the boy's past, screams of pain and horror, war cries of brave gallant men, and pleas of mercy and pity…

They heard a beep coming from the array, interrupting what ever Blake was going to say.. "That would be them now." Blake called out. "Tai! Takuya! Agumon! Centre Stage!"

"Just stand there." Joey instructed them, pointing to an invisible line at Agumon's feet. He was then joined by Gabumon as Matt stood between Blake and Tai.

"You sure I have to do this?" Matt growled.

"Just keep me from doing something stupid alright." Tai reminded him. Davis then appeared next to Tai and Veemon beside Agumon. Then Rika pushed her way in between Davis and Tai.

"What are you doing?" Koji shot at the red head.

"Making sure mini-googles here doesn't screw up. Better if it someone his age group." Rika shot back. "Got a problem with that wolf boy?" Koji growled but found a place next to Takuya as they were lit up by twin beams of silver light. A large curved desk appeared out of thin air between them and the holographic array. Behind it was a man wearing sunglasses. Beside it stood Yoshi and a blonde haired boy.

"Greetings DigiDestine and Legendary Warriors." The sunglasses man spoke up. Faced with delegations, Tai spoke up with introductions.

"Tai Kamiya." The google headed boy introduced himself, bowing respectfully. "These guys are Matt Ishida, Takuya Kanbara, Koji Minamoto, Davis Motomiya, Rika Nonaka, Blake Steorra. And our partners Agumon, Gabumon and Veemon."

"Commander Sampson of the Digimon Data Squad." The man wearing the sunglasses greeted. "I don't believe you've meet Thomas Noristine, one of our agents."

"Only by reputation." Rika answered.

"If we could." Sampson interrupted. "The reason I wanted to speak to you and your group is to help support your efforts in both the Digital World and our world."

"We're aware that this Digimon Emperor and his control spires are causing trouble for innocent digimon, and a number of digimon appearing in Tokyo." The 'Scarf' pointed out.

"Thanks. But we're…"

"Takato!" They heard someone yell, probably Yolei. Then Tommy screamed bloody murder.

* * *

'Unknown Network Interface Under Attack. Encryption Key Cracked. Preventive Systems Ineffective. Immediate Intervention from Commonwealth Agent Required.

'Emergency.

'Emergency.'

Sampson was about to demand what was going on when the pained cry came though the speakers, then the hologram cut off. Clair began to panic.

"What happened!?" Sampson demanded.

"Server processes were reallocated to more pressing matters." Clair answered. "Something's attacking their digimon's data."

"Emergency." They heard over the speaker. "Emergency."

Under her breath and in her native tongue, Clair whispered a string of words that would not go over well with polite company. Then Izzy spoke up.

"I've got it!"

* * *

"Davis. I feel funny." Veemon moaned, as what happened earlier began to take effect.

"Tai?" Agumon held a claw up to his face as it looked like it was over bleached.

"It's happening to the other digimon." Rika pointed out. They all stood frozen, either out of shock, or unable to do anything. Takuya on the other hand looked like he was in pain. "You okay?"

"I feel like… my whole body's on fire." He grunted.

Blake took in the whole scene with a curious glance and a raised eyebrow. Then his phone appeared in his hand and he aimed it at a nearby power pole. Takuya began to feel the pain subside and the digimon just froze.

"What's going on?" Sora asked afraid.

"It's in the Wi-Fi." Was all Blake said.

"What is?!" Matt demanded.

"No idea." Blake answered as he produced his digi-vice which displayed a strange symbol on it's screen. "But what ever it is, our digi-vices really does not like it. Hmm. There's an idea. Tai, I need a boost."

"Why?" Tai demanded.

"Just help me up there." He pointed towards a transmitter mounted to a light post. "Preferably before my little loopback ploy is discovered and dealt with."

* * *

"I think I found something." Izzy called out from one of the DATS terminals. Marcus, Yoshi, JP and Tentomon gathered behind him, examine the data displayed on the screen. "It looks like a remote server is trying to upload their digimon though their digi-vices."

"Can you stop it?" JP asked concerned, not sure what it might do to his friends.

"The data packets are being looped back to the source now. I might be able to terminate the upload and reroute the data back." Izzy started typing franticly. The data on the screen changed rapidly.

"What's happening now?!" Marcus demanded.

"It's got Guilmon." JP answered.

* * *

"Guilmon! No!" Zoe called out as the red dinosaur faded out of existence as it made a feeble attempt to reach his partner, who was lying in the middle of the commotion, still and lifeless. She could see that most of the digimon just stood half bleached and statue like, Joe was trying to examine a screaming Tommy while she and the other warriors looked fine and the pain had stopped.

It was enough to tell her that what ever it was wanted Tommy.

Sora and Davis on the other hand were trying to hold on to their digimon as they began to fade away again.

"Don't leave Veemon." Davis half cried, trying to hold back the tears.

"I'm trying… Da…"

"I'm right here B." Sora reassured her pink bird partner.

"I won… le…"

"Watch where you're swinging that thing!" They heard someone shout, but no one could register who it was. Then there was a loud buzz and a yell and a thump and a strangled moan and a short but brief sheik as they turned to the perpetrators. Tai had fallen on his back. Blake had failed on top of him, and a katana sword missing both Blake's head and Tai's chest had the bushy haired boy not seen the fatal tip glint in the sunlight, forcing him to roll into one direction.

To this day, he could have sworn that he felt something cold pass by his shoulder as he did so. The sword however did not impale itself into the ground. Instead, it simply folded up into it's handle and came to rest on the ground.

"You okay back there?" Blake asked.

"I think it might be broken." Tai grunted, referring to his back.

"Gee. You think." Blake sighed as he got up. "I only went stabbed it with a bloody sword. I'm certain that was not covered by the extended warranty and you were basically talking about your back. Sorry, I was aiming for your hair. I don't know how I could have missed it."

"Couldn't you have used your coat as a parachute?" Tai growled.

"I was advised against playing with knives and skydiving by my doctor after my third parachuting accident. Something about common sense, what ever the hell that is. Speaking of, do you need a hand? Or a doctor?"

"Both would be nice." He tried to get up, only to be knocked down by an orange reptile calling his name.

"Are you okay Tai?" Agumon asked.

"You know me Agumon. Tough as nails." Tai reassured his partner, before becoming concerned himself. "What about you?"

"I'm fine but Biyomon and Veemon look pale Tai. And I don't think Tommy and Takato look so good either." Agumon pointed out. Sora and Davis stood by their half erased partners. Rika and Koichi stood by Takato, trying to wake the boy up, while Yutaka, Zoe, Takuya and Joe was with a half awake and shivering. Blake on the other hand walked up to Koichi.

"Loweemon thinks that his connection with Guilmon is stronger then the other partner humans and digimon." Koichi explained. "And now their distance… you can see the result."

"Makes sense since Takato made his digimon from screech. I guess the data needs his imagination to continue the template." Blake muttered to himself as the boy started moving.

"Guilmon…" He moaned faintly. Blake noticed that there was a layer of sweat. His pulse was thready and his skin was cold. Ice cold.

"We need to get them to a hospital." Yutaka declared.

"A hospital can't help them." Blake protested. "We can. Right Kamiya?!" Everyone's attention turned to the googlehead in question, but he was distracted by the conversation he was having with Izzy via his Digivice. Takuya on the other hand turned to Yutaka.

"You're better off taking Tommy somewhere safe." He told the older boy. "And Shinya. He's not ready for this." A set of keys appeared in the older twin's hand.

"My mom shouldn't be home for a few more hours." Koichi told them. "And it's closer."

"What about Takato?" Yolei asked.

"He's still connected to Guilmon." Henry explained. "He's better off going with them."

"What ever's happening, it's happening in Shinjuku." Tai announced, as he pocketed his digi-vice. "Izzy and JP tracked Guilmon's data back there before losing it."

"Wait. Shinjuku was where Ami tracked that interference this morning." Joey pointed out.

"Who's Ami?" TK asked. "His girlfriend?"

"Wouldn't put it past him." Blake muttered.

"It's a good place to start looking." Henry pointed out.

"What are we waiting for?" Tai then asked. "Matt. Help me with Takato."

* * *

"We've done everything we can do from here." Izzy pointed out as he put down the cell. "Let's hope Tommy, Biyomon, Guilmon and Veemon will be okay after this."

"Sora and Davis must be devastated." Yoshi muttered. "I can't imagine what I'd do if I lost Lalamon like that."

"I sure hope Tommy will be okay." JP sighed. He shuddered remembering that he heard him cry out in absolute agony over the speakers. "That sounded painful."

They heard Sampson clear his throat.

"Yoshino. Thomas. I'm assigning you both and your partners to your new duties as liaison to the children in Tokyo." Sampson informed them. "This will be a deep cover operation. You will be assuming civilian identities and only returning to DATS if instructed. Further instructions will be though secure communication protocols and your identities as DATS agents will be scrubbed. However, the Tokyo Police will be informed of your presence, but only the police commissioner and a select number of contacts will be aware of your actual mission. The cover with the rest of the force is that you are tracking an underground terrorist network that are recruiting children and teenagers as solders.

"Our missions aren't so different. But the children have no sway over authority, nor the resources in the real world to contain digimon threats.

"That is where both of you come in.

"As for their cover, I'll be contacting their schools directly, informing them that these children have received placements to an extra-curricular program that may require them to leave class suddenly."

"Understood Commander." Yoshi and Thomas stated at the same time.

"When do we leave?" Yoshi requested.

"Immediately. As soon as you assume civilian identities." Sampson explained. "Sarah Damon has kindly opened her home to you and your partners until more suitable arrangements can be made."

"Additional orders will be though either Clair Weli'sol or Chief Yoshima." Kudamon announced this time. "We can't risk the operation by communications directly." Clair was shocked by this announcement, but chose not to voice it.

"Take anything you feel you need before returning to Tokyo with the children. I anticipate this will be a lengthy mission." Sampson concluded, and the two young agents left the room. "I assume this arrangement isn't inconvenient to you." That statement was directed to Clair. Though Marcus was fuming.

* * *

Tomoko Kimura sat in the kitchen of her apartment with a cup of coffee in front of her, steam rising from the mug's black contents. Her hospital shift ended with her supervisor insisting that she go home after working none stop for twelve hours. Now she was alone with her thoughts, and they scared her.

She was broken out of her trance when she heard keys at the front door. She stood to attention, expecting to see Koichi walk though the door. She quickly straightened herself up and prepared herself, only to see the boy opening the door wasn't Koichi, nor was it Koji. The boy had brown hair, dull brown eyes, and looked tired like he hadn't slept in days. He did however remind the woman of one of Koichi's friends… Takuya. This had to be Shinya Kanbara.

The boy froze when he saw Tomoko. Then three more unexpected guests arrived. One she recognised immediately as Tommy Himi, even though he wasn't wearing his orange hat. The two older boys were carrying his unconscious form inside. That's when Tomoko went into action, ushering the older boys towards the living room. She pulled the blanket that was folded on the back of the lounge and covered the shivering boy with it. Then she got a closer look at the two boys who bought the young warrior of ice in.

The eldest had long blue hair, and wore a pair of glasses. It was a distinctive shade that Tomoko saw before at work. This was Doctor Kido's youngest. The other boy looked like an older version of Tommy, she could only conclude that this was the infamous Yutaka Himi who had taken overprotectiveness to a new level.

"Sorry to intrude on you Miss Kimora." Joe apologised.

"It's okay." Tomoko deflected. "Just tell me what happened." The boy's looked conflicted.

"We're not sure ourselves."

* * *

Walking down the street of Tamachi, Ken sheathed inwardly, while a passerby wouldn't notice his anger and the occasional pang of pain, masked with a smile and smooth remarks, but someone who was watching knew better.

As Ken walked by a phone booth, the phone decided to ring. In his rage, he decided to keep walking. Then, as he walked by a English style fish and chip shop that decided to open it's doors, a payphone decided to ring. This time, Ken stopped, observed the phone for a brief moment but long enough for the casher boy to approach the phone. Just as he raced for the handset, it stopped ringing. He didn't think anything of it until he passed a third phone booth.

It started to ring.

Hesitating for a moment, his initial rage from losing evaporating and leaving curiosity, he stepped into the phone booth, and answered with a confident "Hello."

"There is a building with a surveillance camera to your right. Do you see it." A woman's voice asked.

"Excuse me."

"The camera on the building on your right. Do you see it?" The voice insisted. Ken looked, on the apartment building, there was a white surveillance camera. Without being prompted, the voice spoke again. "Watch closely."

The camera turned so it was no longer facing the street. It was now facing the wall, losing it's effectiveness.

"There's a camera on the building to your left. Do you see it?" Ken found the camera. When he did, it turned away.

"And finally, the electronics shop across the road." Ken found what she was referring to. There was a large OLED screen in the window, with Fuji TV News being shown. Then, in a storm of static, the channel changed to a lush forest with a number of strange creatures running in sheer terror. He recognised the black rings they were running from.

"I enjoy watching your handiwork emperor." The voice said.

"Who is this?!" The anger was back. He completely missed the black town car that pulled up.

"Get into the car Emperor. I'd make some sort of threat, but your situation is very clear." Then nothing. For a moment, Ken inwardly demanded who this woman though she was, but was now curious. Standing by the rear passenger side door was a giant of a man, as wide as Ken was tall, and a towering seven a half foot tall. Additionally, he was dressed immaculately in a suit and tie. As Ken approached the man, all he did was adjust his sunglasses. When he climbed into the plush leather upholstery, he closed the door with a gentleness that Ken didn't think was possible for a man his size. He heard the man climb in with ease and the engine start up. Ken made several notes about the car, and the equally immaculate woman he was seated next to, including how the car handled the wight of the large man, and how quite the engine was.

* * *

"This is it!" Henry called out. "Stop here!"

The group skidded to a haut before the entrance of a flood control tunnel in Shinjuku Park. They no one protested as the padlock was 'Willed' off by Blake's hand gesture as Digidestine flooded inside. Penlights and smartphone screens did little to light up the inky darkness, but in the end, it was Yolei finding a fuse box, flipping a switch and a collection of lights that lit up the tunnel. The walk was long, and most passed the time by talking, mostly comforting Sora and Davis, Takato muttering in his sleep. Rika heard her name mentioned several times, including the attachment of a particular honorific that did not go unnoticed. Most brushed it off as deliriousness.

"How long is this thing anyway?" Rika demanded.

"Goes all the way to into the bay." Koji answered. "It is a flood control tunnel after all."

"Does anyone else smell that?" Cody asked.

"Like when lightning strikes something nearby?" Zoe enquired. "Yeah."

"Ozone. It's a byproduct of electrical discharges." Yolei clarified. "What's it doing down here?"

"Guilmon." They heard Takato mutter as he began to stir between Tai and Matt. Up ahead, the tunnel began to open up into an empty void.

"Okay." Blake muttered as he pulled his phone from his car pocket. "This is bad."

"A gaping big hole to nowhere in the middle of a tunnel. I think that qualifies." Zoe muttered.

"What is that doing here?" Davis demanded.

"I don't know. Maybe we can ask it and find out." Yolei shot at the younger googlehead.

"You think it'll answer?"

"Gogglehead." Rika scolded.

"It leads into the digital world, but I can't determine exactly where. There's a lot of interference…" Blake explained.

"There used to be something evil there." Koichi pointed out. "It's gone now but, it still left it's mark."

"What's that?" Sora pointed to a small metal eye that floated across the hole then disappeared as it passed the edge. "Was that a digimon?"

"I don't think so." Gabumon pointed out.

"It kinda felt weird." Agumon pointed out.

"Like it's not real." Takuya finished.

"There's something familiar about that place." Gatomon pointed out.

As they commented, Blake pulled out a silver surfboard with a pair of booster rockets attached to the end. It went unnoticed until pulling the actual thing out of his bag caused him to stumble back.

"Just… how did you get that in there?" Terriormon asked confused, pointing to the bag that could barely hold a quarter of the board.

"The real question is, how am I going to get it back in." Blake answered as he place the board before Matt and Tai, like an improvised gurney.

"And it crossed your mind at that moment?" Matt growled, helping Tai lie out the boy on the board, only to have him fall off it until Blake decided to tie him on with a rope.

"We got enough strange looks carrying the boy on the train. The last time I did this, the occupant went though the 18th floor, the 26th floor, then the 37th floor of three different buildings before ending up in the industrial plaza, five kilometres below ground level." Blake explained. "Did not go over well for the half feral lycan that I had to tie down. I lost my left eye, glad it wasn't an original. Don't ask. Besides, We're going to need it to get though the Electron Membrane. That's not going to be fun."

"Electron Membrane?" Takuya asked.

"Imagine this didn't open up into the digital world." Blake started. "Imagine this is some deep part of space, billions of light years away. What would happen to the air?"

"It would get sucked in and create a vacuum?" Tai pointed out. Everyone looked at the google head surprised.

"Spot on. But…" Blake continued. "The nature of the opening works with us here. As the fabric continues to thin, an electric current is caused. And as the tear opens…" Blake punched the hole. There was a bright flash, like lightning. Everyone recoiled as Blake turned back to them. "…a thin but solid membrane of charged electrons forms creating a seal over the hole, keeping the air in. But there's also a catch."

"The electrons have to come from somewhere." Henry theorised. "The ozone. That's the bi-product of the membrane? The oxygen in the air reacts with the current and splits apart into positive charged atoms, then attach themselves to more oxygen and create ozone."

"Now my head hurts. Can we just get Veemon and Biyomon." Davis moaned from all the new information.

"Aren't you listening Googlehead. We'll get electrocuted." Rika scolded the boy. "I think."

"More of a zap really. The current is so low, we can push though, but your hair might stand on end while your going though. Your biggest worry is being blinded by passing though."

"Easy." Takuya pointed out as he pulled his googles over his head. Davis followed as Matt, Henry, Rika, Yolei and Zoe pulled sunglasses from their pockets. Tai on the other hand pulled off his googles and handed them to Sora.

"Thanks." She took them from the bushy haired boy and put them, on. They were surprisingly well fitting for the girl, just needed to tighten them alittle.

"We'll wait here as backup." He assured her.

"Just bing Byiomon and Veemon back safe." Agumon reminded her. "And Guilmon."

"We will guys." Terriormon cheered.

"Renamon." Rika summoned her partner, who intern appeared behind her.

"Right behind you." The fox digimon assured her Tamer.

"Good luck." Koichi offered, but they all knew in the back of their heads, they both needed as much as they could get, and wanted none of it. Takuya, Sora and Davis joined Blake at the head of the group, they had googles strapped around their heads, one hand holding on to another, and the other about to reach into the electron membrane.

"Where angels fear to tread guys and girls." Blake spoke up. "I don't know about you lot, but it's my kind of place."

They each pushed a hand though, bright light blinded the rest but they saw the membrane stretch forward. With all their strength, they pushed though.

With a pop, they were though.

* * *

They were meet with darkness.

As they removed their protection to the bright light, they found there was a dim source of light. They were standing on it, a long walkway that seemed to disappear about twenty meters ahead of them. Other then that, it was an inky void that surrounded them. It was like a fog that . Behind them, the hole was still there, open to a greyscale version of their world. Their voices were distorted from the membrane, but still reached Takuya's ears, however he couldn't tell who was talking.

Instead, the warrior of flame gave the others a thumbs up, noticing that his hand was covered in a silver gauntlet.

'Is this going to happen everytime we enter the digital world?' Takuya voiced in his head. 'We just sprit evolve.'

'Looks like.' Agunimon answered in his head, unsure himself.

"It's not surprising really." Blake's voice interrupted. "Multiforms tend to default to the form they're most comfortable in. In the digital world, it's their human spirits."

Everyone heard him, but Takuya's question was on their minds as well but Zoe and Takuya could help but wonder if he heard their internal conversations. They found themselves standing on something metal, like glass… but it was glowing.

"Wait. I've seen this before." Takuya pointed out recalling early morning encounter with Blake.

"Hard light platform, created by super-dense photons." Blake informed them. "And some sort of artificial gravity to go with it."

"Does that mean were not alone in here?" Rika asked, determined.

"Then we need to stay on our guard." Sora suggested as they heard Takato stir.

"Guil… Where's Guilmon."

"Easy Takato." Blake whispered. "Just rest."

"Does anyone else feel that?" Matt asked. "That… deep sense of dread?"

"You too?" Yolei asked. "Glad I'm not the only one. I just want to get out of here."

"Well this path has to lead somewhere right?" Davis proposed. "Let's go."

"Impatient aren't we." Terriormon chuckled.

"Can you blame him?" Zoe asked the dog eared rabbit as they continued to walk down the glowing path.

Rika couldn't help but marvel at the strange reality she found herself in. If she could see the path in it's entirety, she imagined that it twisted and weaved and wrapped around itself. They were surprised when the path started to curve sideways, twisting into a spiral. At one point, it bent upwards at a 90 degree angle. And strangely, when they stepped on the vertical path, they felt their entire perspective shift suddenly, and it looked like the path behind them was going upwards.

Then there was a sight that managed to make itself known in the darkness.

"Look at that." Henry pointed out.

"Looks like a giant crack." Matt pointed out, looking at the glowing white light coming though.

"Something did not go quietly into the night." Blake muttered.

"What exactly do you mean?" Renamon asked.

"Matt was right in saying it's like a crack, exactly like a crack in the barrier between worlds. Something had to be scary powerful to cause that breach." Blake explained. "Scary powerful and desperate. I wonder where's it gone."

"The same thing that made these walkways?" Yolei asked.

"I don't think so. Possible, but unlikely." Henry muttered in thought. "Thank about it. Why bother making walkways when you're trying to get out of here."

"That does make sense." Zoe agreed. "Do you hear that?"

"A thousand voices lamenting some hideous fate?" Blake asked.

"I hope not. I think I hear it too." Davis pointed out.

"Is it just me or is it speaking with a lisp?" Gabumon pointed out.

"A lisp?" Takuya questioned, looking towards the sound. "Over there!"

They all saw the blue reptile suspended inside a glowing blue sphere in the distance. Now that they're aware, it was as iff the darkness was parting

"Veemon!" Davis called out. "He's too far."

"Someone help me with Takato!" Matt called out as they took him off the Hoverboard. Someone grabbed Davis and practically threw him on the thing.

"Hold on tight Motomiya." Blake instructed as his fingers tapped on his smartphone, and the board decided to float towards the reptile, and Davis held on for dear life. He wasn't sure what would happen if he let go. He wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

"Davis." He heard Veemon call for him. Davis grabbed his digi-vice and managed to point it towards the faded blue reptile. The ghostly shape was reduced to fractal code and pulled into the device. He could hear his friends cheer as Davis felt whole again, his' friend now safe.

* * *

Apart from asking 'Lucy' a few questions, like her name, but he doubted that Lucy was her real name, and where they were going, Tokyo was her only response, the drive continued in silence as Lucy continued to play with her phone. When the car stopped, the door was opened by the same man whom opened the door earlier for Ken. He got out of the car and found himself in a parking garage. Immediately, he saw the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and determined just where he was. Defiantly Shinjuku, or one of the surrounding districts.

He was directed, with a grunt and a nod, towards a pair of flood lights. Standing between them was a woman in a purple suit, chestnut brown eyes and long red hair. She looked familiar in a way, nordic pale skin, sharp cheekbone, eyes set far apart, and almost baby face features. She spoke.

"Take a seat Emperor."

So she's the one on the phone.

"I prefer to stand." He said simply. "Neat trick you did with those cameras. And that television."

"When one is avoiding the attention of Blake Steorra, one must be discreet. The leg must be hurting you. Please." She nodded to the seat.

"I don't want to sit down." Ken said defiantly.

"You don't seem very afraid."

"You don't look very frighting."

"Not that time of the month yet. Tell me, what is your connection to Blake Steorra?"

"There is no connection. I've only known him for a week."

"And in that week, he's helped conspire to destroy twenty four of your control spires, and now your playing chess together. Are to expect your head on a silver plate?"

"Who the hell are you?" Ken demanded, only slimly losing his cool.

"An interested party." The woman said simply.

"Interested in me? Why?"

"Not you. Your stupid, boring, insignificant compared to the greater scheme of things." That made Ken tighten his grip. "I'm interested in Blake. And you've made an enemy of him. An unenviable position, speaking from experience."

"An enemy."

"His longest standing enemy. His arch enemy if you asked him. He does have a flair for the dramatics."

"Good thing you're above all that." Ken said snidely.

"Do you plan to continue your association with Blake Steorra?"

"None of your business." He growled.

"If you do move forward on that expansion in Server Continent, I'd be happy to pay you a stipend, to buy that new computer you've been planing on building."

"In exchange for…"

"Information. Nothing indiscreet. Just keep me informed."

"Why?"

"Because I worry about him. Constantly."

"And yet your his enemy." At this, the woman's unreadable expression faltered before she continued speaking.

"I'm sorry for the loss of your brother." She said. "It must have been hard to take."

"My brother died…" Ken began, but to his surprise, the woman continued to talk.

"But don't worry. Your brother is in a better place then this world. He his finally at rest. But when his soul became free, yours became trapped. You bear the burden of his destiny and your own. Now that your parents have lost their hopes for their perfect child, you will be expected to carry out the dreams Sam can no longer fulfil. This world will become unbearable to you, the pressure to secured will be too great. Let me tell you of another world that's more approbate. A world where your soul can finally be free. You answer to no-one but yourself…"

That email. Ken knew she was reciting the same email he received shortly after Sam's death.

"You don't feel free Ken. I can tell from your arm that you feel more trapped then ever."

"My arm?"

"My I see it?" Ken hesitated for a moment, but decided to let her close the distance between them. She placed a hand on his shoulder, then moved down his arm, stopping half way to his elbow. He was uncomfortable with her touching him, but tried not to show it. "Remarkable. The rest of you is rigged and trembling with rage, and yet your arm is slumped in a posture I find is unmistakably common for boredom, or in this case, depression. That worm thing you keep around, I suggest you listen to him more. Something tells me he knows you better then you know yourself."

"You don't know what your talking about." Ken growled. Her hand moved from his arm to the back of his neck. He flinched at the sudden movement and after a moment, she stepped back.

"Bishop to H3." She told him. "He saw though that earlier ambush. Two knights and neither one took the bait. My driver will take you home. Miranda has other business to deal with on my behalf."

She walked away as 'Lucy' followed. Ken caught the slip but had the feeling it was intentional. He then heard the woman speak again, this time, in english, and this time to Lucy/Miranda.

"Make absolutely sure that his strings are cut."

* * *

The spring evening was cool on her skin as the city was lit up in lights. The day had vanished quickly and night fell over the Eastern Capital. Kari didn't even notice until she looked up from her camera's LCD screen, displaying a photo of Takuya's dodge. She caught herself staring at the brown haired boy longer then she intended, it took Tai and Agumon calling for her to notice anything and Gatomon to stir from her nap.

"Everything okay Tai?" Kari asked.

"Other then Mum calling and telling us to come home and hanging up without any time for a counter argument." Tai answered. "Nothing yet."

Kari nodded, putting her camera back in it's case. She noticed something glint under the light of a nearby streetlamp. "Hey." She picked it up.

It was a pin with a skull like design on the grey background.

"What does that design mean?" Agumon asked.

"I'm not sure." Kari commented. "But something about it just seems… wrong." She pocketed the ring. "I want to wait around for a little while longer."

"Same here." Tai agreed. "Koichi and TK are still down there."

Kari nodded, having been unaware of who was still here. She figured Cody and Koji needed to get home. She didn't think much more of it when she thought she heard something.

"Do you hear that?" Kari asked.

"Hear what?" Tai asked.

"It sounds like singing." Kari clarfied.

"I don't hear anything." Gatomon pointed out, her ears twitching. "Hang on."

She heard it before it attacked. An oversized purple hornet.

* * *

"Great. So which way?" Rika asked. Now that they had Veemon safely tucked in Davis' digi-vice, and Davis made it back to the walkway, albeit slowly, they continued walking. Their next obstacle in this strange reality.

"I say that way." Davis ordered, pointing down the left fork.

"And why that way?" Sora asked.

"How is that way any better?"

"Hey Guys." Zoe pointed out. "Is Takato's digi-vice beeping?"

In response to her question, Matt plucked the device out of the sleeping boy's glowing pocket. The glow was caused by the screen of the digi-vice lighting up. The shape of a holographic sphere began to take shape above the screen. A red dot appeared inside the sphere, pointing towards the right fork.

"Just like Seraphimon's palace." Takuya mused.

"That way." Matt pointed as he took the lead with Gabumon.

"Does anyone else get the feeling they're being watched?" Yolei asked suddenly.

"Your just being paranoid." Blake dismissed.

"Hey! Look at that!" Davis called out as something flew over them and hovered over the edge of the walkway. It looked like a metal eyeball.

"Now do you think I'm paranoid?" Yolei demanded.

"Yes. But it doesn't mean, they're not out to get you."

"Is it a digimon?" Rika asked.

"Not one we've ever seen." Sora answered.

"Something doesn't seem right about it." Takuya offered.

"Like… something artificial?" Zoe concluded.

"Is anything right about this place?" Matt demanded as the eyeball floated away. "And there's something familiar about it."

"You got it too? Glad I'm not the only one." Sora said relieved. "Hey. Blake. Earlier you said something about braking out of here."

"Your point?" Blake asked.

"You said it was powerful. Just how powerful are we talking here?" Blake thought on Sora's question for a moment before answering. He didn't get a chance as a voice broke the silence.

"Sora."

"Was that… Byiomon!" Sora called out.

"Over there!" Zoe called out. Pointing towards a pink glow.

"Hey! Look!" Henry called out next, pointing towards a white glow.

"That has to be Kumamon!" Takuya called out.

"And they're both off the beaten path." Blake noticed, both spheres were a good distance away. Zoe was about to take off after the white sphere, but was stopped. "Hey, hey hey. Flying around here is dangerous. Do you even know which way is up?"

"That way?" Zoe pointed but found she was pointing off towards her right. Now that she began questioning it, she really had no idea.

"Sora can take the board." Takuya instructed. "Blake. Those hard light platforms."

Blake got the hint. "They'll work, but you'll need to be quick." He turned towards Sora. "Ever gone skateboarding?"

"No." Sora admitted.

"Good, because it's nothing like skateboarding." He assured her. "Just climb on, and scream bloody murder when it gets too scary."

"Great." Sora moaned as Henry and Davis pulled Takato off the board. Takuya and Blake didn't wait around as they dashed down the walk way.

"Ever danced to a waltz?" Blake asked Takuya as they came to a stop. "Count to two, jump on three. Keep going forward. One, two, three. Got it?"

"One, two, Three." Takuya repeated. "One, two… three!" He kept forward, landing on a circular platform of light. In the corner of his eye, he could see a flash of purple as he counted again. "One. Two. Three!" He jumped, and landed on solid photons again. There was another flash, as he counted, jumped, and landed. Jump on three, land, flash, count, jump, land…

"Takuya…" He heard Kumamon's voice. Now was the moment of truth, his digivice appeared quickly as Kumamon's fractal code was scanned in. The sphere was gone.

And so was the platform.

Takuya fell up, at first. He thought it was up for a second, then he felt like the world was spinning for the next few, then landed on something… hard.

It was another hard light platform, but Takuya had trouble hanging on the this one.

"One. Two. Three." He repeated as he let go. He landed on another, this time, on his feet. In front of him was Blake, and the walkway. What he didn't expect was that he had to crane his head up to see Blake, and everyone, upside down. Not risking another fall like the last one, he didn't think about it. He just jumped forward, not noticing the code vanishing from his digivice. The words 'Fractal Code Digitise' emitted from the device.

Sora meanwhile decided to take Blake's advice and scream as the board had her flying though the air, or what ever it was they were flying though. She made it to Byiomon's sphere alright, once she got her partner whole again, the board decided to malefaction or something. She kept screaming until the board came to an abrupt stop, and she found herself on a smooth metal floor.

"Sora?"

"I am never riding that thing again." Sora moaned as she sat upright. She wondered where she ended up as she heard something move with a mechanical whirr. I giant mental structure, the hight of a skyscraper seemed to rise from, where ever it was hiding. It took Sora a moment to process that it was apart of the metal floor she handed on. Next to her, four, thinner, but taller metal structures seemed to rise and curl protectively around her, like she was… she gulped as she realised that what she landed on was the palm of a gargantuan hand.

And out from the darkness, two blue eye like lights observed her, almost like a little boy observing an ant though a magnifying glass. The eyes came with an almost helmet like face of metal. She looked down, seeing the machine's chest plate was covered in burns and dints, like a formable human army went up against the thing with missiles and tanks, but seceded in only doing superficial damage to it. The plate also had romanji and numbers across it in thousand foot letters and numerals, and lit up by bight spotlights.

'Gladiator Unit, Gamma Class. 37Δ292.'

The triangle symbol in the numbers, Sora reminded herself that it was the greek letter delta. She had listened in science when they used it to represent change in temperature. On the other chest plate was a large seven point star.

What, or rather who, she didn't see was a pink haired girl and her digital plant companion, cover Sora's eyes in a playful and friendly gesture.

"Guess who."

* * *

'Bridged Connection between network interfaces requested. Preparing Tokyo Based Server…'

'OFTP Layer Protocol engaged… preparing ensured integrity feed…'

'Tommy. It's time to Wake Up.'

'Come on Tommy. Wake Up.'

* * *

"Come on Tommy. Wake up." Yukata muttered under his breath.

Tomako watched the boy move irritably around the apartment, nervous energy rolling off the boy in almost tsunami sized waves. She was aware of the plight the older Himi sibling was facing. Yet, she couldn't help but watch worried.

She was broken from her thoughts when Joe spoke up.

"He's going to be okay." She heard him say, reassuring the older Himi. "Taku…"

She suddenly heard the Koichi's laptop start beeping impatiently, and screen was lit up impossibly bright, almost blinding her. It caught the attention of the other two boys as the light seemed to curve into the living room. Then it faded into nothing and left a brief silence.

Which was broken by a moan.

"Yutaka?" Tommy asked.

"Hey kid." Yutaka answered, with a mixture of anger, relief and joy.


End file.
